Aircraft crashed in middle of North Sea turns out to be giraffe-shaped balloon

Coastguard says the emergency call was made in good faith

Life on the ocean wave: container ships ferry their cargoes across the North Sea, as tribes and traders have done for millennia (Getty Images)

A lifeboat crew was called out to a report of an aircraft ditching only to find out it was sparked by a balloon shaped as a giraffe.

South Queensferry lifeboat was sent out after a member of the public called in to report a possible aircraft ditching in the Firth of Forth on Tuesday.

The team reached the object and found it was a giraffe-shaped helium balloon.

A Coastguard spokesman said the call at 9.50am was made in good faith.

He said: "The South Queensferry lifeboat was called out to a possible aircraft ditching in the Firth of Forth which turned out to be a giraffe-shaped helium balloon. The man who called wasn't trying to mislead us. He saw it and he thought it was an aircraft."

PA