Author: kevin

This is to inform you that Cospas-Sarsat System Data No. 40 in three languages was posted to our website.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to You!

Two dads and their daughters used a PLB to call for rescue when the Deua River rose and swept away their tents and kayaks, leaving them stranded on the wrong side of the river.

JRCC assisted police in tasking Lifesaver 3, the local rescue helicopter, to winch them to safety, where the State Emergency Service and Parks ranger helped them back to their car.

Police praised the group’s foresight in bringing the personal locator beacon, which can help rescue efforts in high-risk scenarios.

Read more here:

http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/2747403/four-rescued-from-flooded-river/?cs=12

Please see C/S G.008 in System Documents for the latest Russian version of document C/S G.008 “Operational Requirements for Cospas-Sarsat Second Generation 406 MHz Beacons”.

MOSCOW, 1 December 1 2014. /TASS/. A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Fregat upper stage and a GLONASS-K new-generation navigation satellite has been launched from the Plesetsk space center in Russia’s northwestern Arkhangelsk Region, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Alexey Zolotukhin said Monday. Cospas-Sarsat SAR payload is installed onboard this satellite.

The first launch of a satellite of Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS, Russia’s equivalent of the US Global Positioning System, GPS) from Plesetsk took place February 26, 2011.

Earlier, all GLONASS satellite launches had been made from the Baikonur space center Russia leases from Kazakhstan with the help of Proton-M carrier rockets.

Read more here: http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/764407

ESA has completed construction and testing of a trio of ground stations that will provide coverage over the European search and rescue region. The stations are located in Spitsbergen in the Norwegian Arctic’s Svalbard archipelago, Maspalomas on the largest island of Spain’s Canary Islands, and Larnaca on the island nation of Cyprus, forming a triangle enclosing Europe. The three are coordinated and overseen from a control centre in Toulouse, France.

Galileo engineers have introduced another innovation: for the first time those in distress will receive a reply, letting them know their signal was picked up and help is on the way.

Read more here:

http://www.insidegnss.com/node/4283

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Navigation/New_sites_will_boost_European_search_and_rescue

QuantasLink Captain James Graham was happy to help establish radio communication as the first on the scene near Fraser Island where five men stood atop their overturned catamaran that had an unregistered Australian coded EPIRB.

AMSA had tasked a number of vessels to help rescue the men who had been stranded for about two-and-a-half hours, shaken but unharmed.

Read more and see video here:
http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/news/five-men-rescued-after-boat-capsizes-fraser-island/2447140/
and here:
http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/news/qantas-helps-stricken-boaties/2448790/

A RCCNZ rescue helicopter was tied up for four hours searching for an obsolete beacon that was found floating below decks in a yacht in Waikawa Bay near Picton, New Zealand.

Old or obsolete beacons need to be disposed of carefully: the battery needs to be disconnected and the beacon disposed of according to local regulations, as many beacons contain hazardous materials.

Read more here:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1410/S00798/obsolete-beacon-sparks-wasteful-search.htm

Australian Search and Rescue Authority sent a helicopter to search a remote location in the North West where a motorbike rider had been thrown from his bike.

Had he not been carrying an emergency beacon, said RACQ NQ Rescue Helicopter chief executive Alex Dorr, it may have been days before he was found and treated for his internal chest injuries and then transported to hospital.

Read more here:

http://www.northweststar.com.au/story/2651549/motorcyclist-lucky-to-be-alive-after-remote-crash/?cs=12

Unfamiliar with the unregistered 406-MHz beacon that did not have GPS, two fishermen struggled through crocodile-infested waters after their boat flipped while they slept, and did not activate it until they reached the shore.

AMSA in Canberra was alerted by satellite, but because the beacon was not registered, it took a further forty minutes to resolve their position and send the Darwin Dornier and a CareFlight helicopter to rescue the dehydrated men who suffered from exposure but were otherwise unharmed.

“Those waters are full of lizards and biters. We thought we were finished.”

Read more here:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-22/fishermen-rescued-from-croc-infested-waters/5832954

After failed attempts to repair their yacht, a sailing couple activated their Cospas-Sarsat emergency beacon in the Coral Sea, approximately 70nm south east of Cooktown, Queensland.

AMSA’s Cairns based Search and Rescue aircraft located the vessel and guided a nearby motor cruiser to the scene to provide assistance and then transferred them to a Cairns water police vessel for return to shore.

Read more here:

http://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/cairns/foreign-couple-rescued-from-stricken-yacht-near-cairns-after-getting-caught-up-in-rough-seas/story-fnjpusyw-1227097865757