Radio distress call during floods a ‘false flag’, Civil Defence confirms

The original version of this story implied Civil Defence believed the Facebook post was a hoax. It has been reworded to make it clear Civil Defence believed the radio call was a “false flag”. It also said the call was heard on Ham radio, it was a Personal Radio Service (PRS). We apologise for the errors.

Civil Defence believe a woman heard on a radio channel in distress during flooding in the upper South Island was a “false flag”.

A woman saying she was based in the Motueka Valley wrote on multiple Facebook pages last night that she’d overheard the woman calling for help on PRS channel 16, but had “no idea where she is”.

“Does anyone know a woman with the radio call sign ‘SPARKY’ – I can hear a lady on our radio calling for help but when I reply she cannot hear me.

“She is on channel 16. I have no idea where she is, and have no other information.”

The alarming post about a woman in distress being heard on VHF channel 16 was shared on multiple Tasman and Nelson community pages on Facebook. Photo / 123RF

The post was shared to multiple community Facebook pages, sparking widespread alarm.

Nelson Tasman Civil Defence responded to the woman’s post in the Nelson (New Zealand) Community Group, saying, “Hi team, we are aware of this, and the Coastguard is working with her”.

Police and Nelson Coastguard told the Herald last night they were aware of the post, with the latter also contacting Maritime NZ.

However, Civil Defence public information manager Chris Choat said this morning it was a “false flag”.

The woman believed to have made the post couldn’t be contacted last night because she’d turned her phone off, Choat said.

The woman has since updated her Facebook posts saying she turned off her phone to conserve battery for emergency calls, “like thousands of others in the region, we’ve had no power since the storm”.

Further inquiries by authorities had turned up nothing to suggest the so-called distress call was true.

“We’re treating it as a false flag.”