Please click to access the Summary of FMCC activity – December 2019
Category: System Overview
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2020-01-06 Summary of FMCC activity – November 2019
Please click to access the Summary of FMCC activity – November 2019
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2020-01-03 Two men winched to safety near Perth, Australia – rescuers aided by up-to-date registered 406 beacon contact information
Two men have been winched to safety after their boat sank off the coast of Perth last Friday afternoon.
A five-metre recreational boat sank and the AMSA was able to contact the beacon owner’s registered emergency contact person, who provided “valuable locational information for the boaties, as well as advice on safety equipment carried onboard”.
Read more here:
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-27/two-winched-to-safety-from-ocean-off-perth-jindalee-beach/11829476?pfmredir=sm -
2019-12-24 The longest day – a thank-you from boaters in the Azores
The boaters shared a thank-you message from boaters to the MRCC Gris-Nez (CROSS) and the MRCC Lisbon team, including MRCC Ponta Delgata, who were alerted by the FMCC and the Cospas-Sarsat System:
“A huge thank-you to CROSS [MRCC Gris-Nez] and to all the MRCC Lisbon staff for their efficiency and swift reaction”.
The French racing sailboat had participated a few weeks ago in the 2019 Transat Jacques Vabre Race, and on the morning of 18 December was dismasted south-west of the Azores in severe weather conditions with heavy seas and wind of 35 to 40 knots from the west.
They set off their 406 EPIRB and the MRCC Lisbon was the SAR point of contact of the FMCC, and the MRCC Ponta Delgada, assisted by MRCC Gris-Nez, led the SAR operation.
Two Portuguese vessels were tasked and as weather improved an airplane spotted the wreck in the afternoon.
That evening, a Portuguese Air Force helicopter was able to reach the two sailors and transported them safe and sound to the Azores.
Read more here:
https://www.facebook.com/class40louisduc/And see video here:
https://www.facebook.com/PortugueseAirForce/videos/1314803232024880/ -
2019-12-12 Being prepared pays off for capsized pair of 406 beacon owners
Two persons were rescued near Jurien Bay in Western Australia on 30 November.
Their registration contact confirmed they were out fishing, and rescue helicopters and aircraft were tasked, as well as a local volunteer marine rescue.
The beacon was correctly registered and the beacon registration details were critical in a successful response by the Australian ARC (AMSA Response Centre).
Read more at:
https://thewest.com.au/news/midwest-times/being-prepared-pays-off-for-capsized-pair-ng-b881397284z -
2019-12-11 New SAR/Galileo status information available
To support Search and Rescue services and provide general awareness on the status of SAR/Galileo infrastructure, the European GNSS Service Centre has published SAR/Galileo information on the GSC website. Information provided includes:
• current operating mode and status of each Galileo SAR payloads,
• return-link service (RLS) status for each Galileo satellite,
• SAR payload characteristics,
• the list of SAR/Galileo reference beacons and their availability,
• status of the SAR/Galileo server that provides Galileo constellation orbital products in a precise and timely manner.This information is accessible through a new menu section called “SAR Information” under the “System & Service Status” heading, available at https://www.gsc-europa.eu/system-service-status/sar-information/sargalileo-satellites-information).
Source: from https://www.gsc-europa.eu/news/you-asked-we-listened-new-sargalileo-service-status-information-available
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2019-11-28 Indonesia: Superyacht Sinking Sparks Global Search, call for updating registration info
The UK Coastguard was among the agencies joining an international search operation Friday night after a superyacht sank off Indonesia.
They received a call from the Australian maritime authority, (JRCC Australia), who had in turn received an alert from what initially appeared to be a UK-registered vessel.
Investigations led them the next morning to a US-registered EPIRB, which had been activated in approximately the same area.
Contact was made with the skipper’s wife, and finally the skipper himself, who confirmed that the vessel had sunk off Indonesia after hitting an object in the water, but all four crew had managed to get on board the inflatable boat they were carrying.
They managed to find their way to land nearby to meet with rescuers.
The UK Coastguard has called for vessels to keep beacon registration information updated, which would have saved valuable rescue time and resources.
Read more here:
https://www.marinelink.com/news/indonesia-superyacht-sinking-sparks-473225
and here
https://www.rya.org.uk/newsevents/news/Pages/HM-Coastguard-calls.aspx -
2019-11-28 New MEOLUT commissioned in Chinese Taipei
Chinese Taipei can soon begin using a facility in Pingtung City for maritime rescue missions after it was commissioned by the International Cospas-Sarsat Programme last week, the Maritime Port Bureau said.
Tests of the new facility have shown that the Medium-altitude Earth Orbit Local User Terminal has a range of 8,000 km and can receive signals from beacons on ships and locate them within 10 minutes, with a margin of error of about 5 km.
The time could be reduced to five minutes if new beacons are used.
Read more at:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2019/11/26/2003726511 -
2019-10-29 Freak wave flips boat off Ocean Reef
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.”
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2019-10-28 Learn about preventing false distress alerts with Sunny Swift
Read about false alerts in the European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s latest edition of their comic, Sunny Swift.
In Issue 16, Sunny visits the French Mission Control Centre and learns about Cospas-Sarsat and how to prevent the false activations of beacons.
The comic is also available (linked in the “Downloads” section of the comic’s webpage) in twenty different languages.
Read it here:
https://www.easa.europa.eu/newsroom-and-events/news/sunny-swift-false-distress-alerts