A Coastguard team was called out to reports of a paraglider appearing to land in the sea.

The Wyke Coastguard team was alerted to reports of the paraglider landing somewhere between Chesil Cove and Ferry Bridge on Portland on Saturday at 7.24pm.

The team went to the Crabhouse Café to liaise with the South Western Ambulance Service.

On arrival, the National Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC) sent a message saying the first witness of the incident, who was from a local holiday camp, had reported seeing a paraglider in a steep descent from about 500ft, but had not seen them come back up, and so raised the alarm.  

Coastguards judged from where the witness had been standing that the paraglider may have landed out of view at Chesil Cove.

Two members of the coastguard team headed to higher ground to get a better view of the scene, whilst the rest of the team liaised with the ambulance service and made further enquiries with known local paragliders.

It was soon established that the incident involved a local paraglider.

The person was called and it was confirmed they were in the area and had simply descended quickly to land in the Chesil Cove area.

The news correlated with team members not seeing anything untoward from their vantage point on Portland and the fact that no other reports had been logged from any of the many potential witnesses along Chesil Bank.

Satisfied with the team’s information, the NMOC allowed all teams to stand down and recorded the incident as a false alarm with good intent.