On Sunday 19 August 2018 at 07:52 UTC, the Cospas-Sarsat MEOSAR system received a initial signal from a USA-registered personal locator beacon.
The encoded position was transmitted to the Swiss ARCC by the French MCC only 6 minutes later and showed a position high within the Swiss Alps on Eiger Mountain.
Although no altitude information was transmitted it was clear from the encoded position a high mountain rescue was required.
The Swiss ARCC contacted Swiss Air-Rescue and transmitted all the details it had received from the US RCC, where the PLB had been registered.
Swiss Air-Rescue then managed to locate the missing climber.
The climber had strayed from the route at Eiger Ostegg (Bernese Oberland) and had triggered an emergency call at an altitude of around 2,900 meters.
He was located about 20 meters below the ridge under an overhang and could go neither forward nor back.
Due to the overhang, his position was not initially accessible to the rescue hoist from the hovering helicopter.
After several attempts, the climber was finally winched out unharmed.
The rescue by the helicopter was a challenging one.
Thanks to the reliable Cospas-Sarsat System, the alert was distributed rapidly and the rescue was initiated immediately, which led to its success.
The correctly-registered PLB allowed responders to retrieve essential emergency contact information.
Read the German-language article here:
https://www.rega.ch/de/aktuell/aktuelles/detail.aspx?id=3052