The new Cospas-Sarsat MEOSAR system gave about an hour advantage in this case over LEOSAR.
The two fishermen were fishing 60 km offshore in New South Wales and had already hooked one shark that was brought onboard.
Late in the afternoon they hooked another shark, but when they brought it on board the combined weight of the two caused the stern to tip and take on water.
The winch operator aboard the rescue helicopter said that the men were well equipped to facilitate a rescue, both wearing lifejackets.
They activated their 406 EPIRB and an emergency flare to alert authorities, and when rescuers arrived, the first thing they saw was the flare.
The article calls it a GPS emergency beacon but the beacon didn’t have a global navigation satellite system receiver, and was not able to transmit an encoded location.
The fishermen were being winched out of the water as the first LEOSAR detection was received.
“They were extremely grateful to be winched aboard, and in good spirits too” said the winch operator.
The fishermen’s boat was left out at sea, with the outline of one of the sharks still visible as the bow dipped below the water’s surface.
Watch video of the rescue and read more here:
https://www.9news.com.au/national/news-nsw-fishermen-rescued-after-shark-sinks-boat/aec756f8-fe01-4fb5-a9fa-26bf37104fab