A fisherman from Perth, Australia was thrown into the water by a freak wave, and forced to cling to his overturned boat.
He dived several times to retrieve his GPS-enabled 406 beacon, and the rescue helicopter and two vessels tasked by AMSA arrived within 90 minutes.
With the GPS feature on the 406 EPIRB, rescuers in the police vessel were able to hone in on his location to within 100 metres.
Without that GPS feature, they would have been searching a five kilometre radius.
“It could have been a lot worse,” the fisherman said.
“That GPS saved my life.”