PARACHUTE FLARES LIGHT CLIFFS EN SEARCH Aberdeen. At 9.29 on the evening of the 4th May, 1962, the coastguard passed on to the honorary secretary a request from the police for help in searching for a man reported to have fallen over the cliffs near Cove Bay. As the life-boat would not have been able to close the foot of the cliffs because of the ebbing tide and the rocky nature of the area, the coastguard arranged for a local fishing coble to put out. Then there came a request for flares to light up the cliff face, and at 10.30 the lifeboat Ramsay-Dyce left her moorings.

There was a light south-south-easterly wind and a slight sea. The life-boat reached the position at 11.10 and came as close in to the cliffs as she could.

Three parachute flares were fired, and the searchlight was also used, but nothing was found. The life-boat was therefore recalled and reached her station at 12.15..