An emergency response was triggered by a Territorial Army (TA) training exercise on the banks of the River Spey yesterday morning.
The TA failed to inform the coastguard that it was conducting an exercise using flares, a mile west of Kingston.
Coastguards in Aberdeen began to receive calls from locals at 9am after the flares were spotted.
Amid fears they may have been coming from a boat in trouble, the Buckie lifeboat and a coastguard team from the town were sent to investigate.
Innes Community Council chairman, John Fettes, said: “I saw the coastguard go past with the blue lights, but by the time I went down to Kingston to see what had happened they were away again.
“I had no idea that it was happening. None of the locals I’ve talked to knew anything about it. I really thought the trouble must have been something out at sea because I’ve seen the coast guard down there before, but never with blue lights on.”
A coastguard spokesman said they received no prior warning about the exercise.
He added: “It was just to the west of the river. It was at 9am this morning. We had a Buckie coastguard team and lifeboat.
“As it turned out, they were firing from land.
“It was hand held flares, the problem is that it could have been a vessel in distress, if the TA had told somebody it wouldn’t have been a problem.”
While the TA failed to communicate with the coastguard, a police spokeswoman said the police had been informed of the exercise.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “We take the requirement to liaise and co-ordinate with the local authorities and emergency services when planning training exercises very seriously.
“In this case, there seems to have been a regrettable breakdown in communications, and we will investigate what happened to make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future.”