RESCUE chiefs have ticked off volunteers for posting a picture of a crewman apparently planking on top of a £2m lifeboat.
The image on the Planking Scotland Facebook page shows an Orkney lifeboat crew member on the fly deck, lying completely flat with his arms by his side.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) today (wed) insisted the man was CLEANING the Kirkwall-based Severn Class lifeboat.
RNLI bosses have “reminded” crews of their policy on using social media and the image has been removed from the site.
A spokesman for the RNLI said: “One of the RNLI’s volunteer crewmen was on top of the fly deck of the Kirkwall all-weather lifeboat to undertake some cleaning while the boat was on exercise on a calm day.
“He was about to come down when another crewman decided to take a photograph which was then placed on a social media website.
“The RNLI will be reminding volunteers of the RNLI’s guidelines on the use of social media.”
The planking craze, which began in Australia, continues to tempt Scots to be photographed lying flat in strange – and often dangerous – places.
One planker appears to have achieved a Scottish height record of 1,344m – by planking on the top of Ben Nevis.
Another planker is pictured on the top of a statue in the middle of Glasgow’s George Square. Yet another planker is photographed at least 100ft up a set of floodlights in Ayrshire.
Last year, a Scottish planker uploaded a picture which showed them lying on top of a motorway sign above the M90.
