In an unexpected turn of events, a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) rescue crew was dispatched to Bempton, England, on Monday following reports of a body floating in the North Sea. Upon arriving and conducting a thorough search, the lifeboat crew discovered the body in question was not a person at all, but a lost training dummy.
The dummy had apparently been misplaced by another RNLI crew from Hartlepool during a training exercise two weeks earlier. The Hartlepool team later acknowledged the incident with good humour, posting on social media: “You may say failure, we say learning event.
The false alarm, though unusual, provided a valuable reminder of the unpredictability faced by rescue crews, highlighting the importance of readiness and thorough searches, even in unexpected scenarios. The RNLI continues to play a critical role in lifesaving operations around the UK, responding swiftly to all emergency calls, including the occasional mix-up with training equipment.
No harm was done, and the training dummy is now back in safe hands.
