NSRI appeals to public not to set off sky lanterns

THE NSRI has appealed to the public to not set off sky lanterns as part of New Year’s celebrations.

According to the Sea Rescue communications officer, Craig Lambinon, sky lanterns floating in the sky look similar to distress flares and eye witnesses mistake sky lanterns for distress flares. “All eye-witness reports of distress flares sighted around the coastline require the NSRI and the emergency services to launch a full scale search and rescue operation without hesitation. Even when the sighting may later be confirmed to have been sky lanterns a search operation can continue for quite some time until it can be absolutely confirmed that no persons or craft at sea may be in any difficulty,” he explained.

Sky lanterns pose the additional danger of being a fire hazard and this year that risk is greater because drought conditions have rendered open areas to be more dry and more susceptible to fire than normal.