There is nothing wrong with a Sunday snooze – but one man who chose to get some shut-eye near Fort Augustus triggered a major rescue response.
Apparently unaware of the drama that was about to engulf him a man decided to take nap on a beach not far from the scenic village but someone saw him and concerned for his safety called it in.
Reports of “a potentially injured, unconscious casualty in the recovery position on a beach in the Fort Augustus area” caused a scramble.
Police, ambulance, two coastguard teams from Inverness and Fort William were called as was the Coastguard Rescue helicopter and the Loch Ness RNLI.
According to an RNLI Loch Ness statement posted on social media they were called at around 7.30pm and they made their way along the loch as fast as possible.
The Coastguard helicopter Rescue 951 was first on the scene and they were able to determine quite quickly “that the person on the shore was in fact asleep – safe and well, and no assistance was required.”
The lifeboat arrived shortly after that and was stood down along with the other teams which were called out.
The RNLI confirmed later that it was “a case of false alarm with good intent” but reminded the public that it is better to be safe than sorry and if in doubt “please DO call 999 and ask for the Coastguard. Much better that it is checked out, than lives being put at risk.”
The call out was treated so seriously by the RNLI that a new team member was “swapped off the boat for this one as it had the potential to need a full contingent of casualty care trained crew, so shore crewed tonight.”
There are no further details about the snoozing man nor his response to being woken by the Coastguard’s Sikorsky S-92 helicopter coming to his aid.