Burning flares alert Stornoway aircraft

“Unfolding emergency incident”

Stornoway air traffic control (ATC) reported to the Coastguard earlier this morning that an aircraft had spotted green flares being fired to the left hand side of Brevig harbour, but that the flare seemed to coming from on shore. ATC confirmed from the tower that they could also see a fire in that area.

The local Coastguard Team were immediately tasked to the area to being looking for the source of the flare. Upon arrival they located a small bonfire at the harbour. The debris indicated that it included netting, creels and pallets, as well as out of date flares.

Maggie Mackay, Duty Watch Manager at Stornoway Coastguard said

This is NOT the way to dispose of out of date flares. Besides being highly dangerous to the individual attempting to build the bonfire, but, as in this case, it can alert the authorities to what they might believe is an unfolding emergency incident.

“No storage facilities”

We have tried and tested ways of disposing of flares. We recently awarded a new contract to undertake the collection and disposal of Time Expired Pyrotechnics (TEPs) from our premises. The new contracted service began in December last year with Ramora UK Ltd of Portsmouth. (www.ramorauk.com)

Following recent changes of legislation with regard to the storage and transportation of explosives, MCA premises have been brought into line with those changes. Analysis of the quantities of TEPs deposited with the MCA indicate that up to 70% of items find their way to the vicinity of our sites which will accept TEPs. This includes Stornoway Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre.

A call to the Station first on 01851 702013 will help us identify when it is possible to deposit the out of date flares with us. We are also asking the public not to take TEPS to police stations as they have no storage facilities for these items.

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