Lost kitesurfers found safe after lengthy rescue operation

The Royal Dutch Rescue Society, the KNRM, launched a more than two hour long rescue mission on Thursday night searching for two missing kite surfers, who eventually turned out to not be missing after all. On Thursday afternoon Eckard Boot, a forester at the nature monument on Texel, tweeted that he had encountered two kite surfers in a closed area who had departed from Harlingen and thought they had landed on Vlieland. "These kite surfers are lost! On Texel from Harligen... Now they want to go to Vlieland through the North Sea." he tweeted. "Nothing at all prepared and nothing in terms of navigation... Undoubtedly this will soon be a KNRM job..."

Deze kitesurfers zijn verdwaald! op Texel vanuit Harlingen…. Nu willen ze via de Noordzee naar Vlieland door. #knrm pic.twitter.com/j2ro635iKN

— Eckard Boot (@EckardBoot) August 27, 2015

Totaal niets voorbereid en ook niets mee qua navigatie… Dat wordt vast een @KNRM klus straks… pic.twitter.com/B06nxLNtT2

— Eckard Boot (@EckardBoot) August 27, 2015

His prediction came partly true a few hours later. Other boaters reported to the KNRM that the pair was in trouble on the Wadden Sea, according to NOS. The rescue society immediately responded with a rescue operation involving six lifeboats, one helicopter and a Coast Guard airplane.

We zijn op het wad momenteel met een grote zoekactie bezig naar (mogelijk) twee vermiste kiters

— KNRM (@KNRM) August 27, 2015

They scoured the area between Harlingen and Vlieland for over two hours, finding no sign of the missing kite surfers. And for good reason. The broadcaster reports that the two had landed at Zurigh in Friesland hours before, completely fine and unaware of the fuss surrounding their "disappearance". They reported to the KNRM when they noticed the commotion on social media.