The flight path of a helicopter caught people’s attention as it made a flower pattern in the sky off the Kent coast.

Residents wondered whether the chopper was deliberately sketching the floral outline near Margate last night.

But the coastguard has confirmed it was a “normal search pattern” carried out by its rescue helicopter following a false alarm.

A spokesperon said crews were called to a report of a person in difficulty on an inflatable.

The alarm was raised shortly after 7pm, with the search and rescue helicopter sent from Lydd.

The RNLI’s lifeboats from Margate were also called to the scene, plus coastguard rescue teams from the town and Deal.

A coastguard spokesperson said: “The operation was ended after nothing was found following an extensive search. The alert was considered a false alarm with good intent.”

Many people took to social media after spotting search helicopter and tracking it on the Flightradar app.

It created a pattern which many people said resembled a flower.

The Dover Strait Shipping page on Facebook said: “Start the week with… Flower Power.

“Gary Green spotted this yesterday evening.

“One of the coastguard A189s presumably perfecting a search pattern, but in doing so, appearing to ‘draw’ a flower.

“Bloomin' marvellous. I like helicopters.”

Benjamin Payne commented to point out it was a pattern called a sector search.

Neil Robertson agreed, and said: “Sector search as already mentioned.

“You input the parameters into the flight management system, press some buttons and sit back and look out of the window.”

A coastguard spokesman added: “It was a normal search pattern.”