A distress signal was detected from the craft en route from Durban to East London, South Africa, and the four merchant vessels sent found an empty life raft, the capsized catamaran, and another inflatable dinghy.
On a second pass between the EPIRB’s last known location and the empty overturned vessel, the two men were finally found in their liferaft in the fading light of day.
Read more here:
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Missing-men-found-alive-and-well-adrift-at-sea-20151018
With lifejackets floated away, and phone dead after a couple of tries, the boat captain set off their EPIRB, which had almost been left on shore before setting out on their fishing trip.
“I was on top of the [capsized] boat with my phone in my mouth, the EPIRB under my arm, I’ve dislocated my knee, hanging on to my friends,” he said.
Read more here:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/rescued-boaties-almost-left-without-the-epirb-that-saved-their-lives-20151018-gkc4ec.html
and
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-18/teen-among-three-fishermen-rescued-from-upturned-boat-bribie/6863620?WT.ac=localnews_brisbane
The Cospas-Sarsat Secretariat hosted the 29th Joint Committee Meeting in Montreal, Quebec, Canada chaired by Dr Lisa Mazzuca from the USA. The OWG and TWG were chaired by Mr Tore Wangsfjord from Norway and Mr George Theodorakos from the USA.
The meeting was attended by 172 people, and included delegates from the four Cospas-Sarsat Parties, thirty-six Participant countries, four Observer organisations, and members of the Secretariat.
The Cessna pilot escaped with just a few cuts and bruises after crashing his plane in the remote Gascoyne, Western Australia on Saturday morning, sparking a difficult rescue.
The terrain, including a creek, proved difficult for land crews and the man was rescued by helicopter.
Read more here:
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/regional/gascoyne/a/29720748/pilot-rescued-at-remote-crash-scene/
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) coordinated the search that found nine people drifting toward an island on their dinghy north of Australia, close to Papua New Guinea, after it detected an emergency beacon registered to them.
The group advised rescuers of a second dinghy with three more people, and a Navy ship and police vessel were diverted to find the others.
“It also helped that the beacon was correctly registered. From the beacon registration information, JRCC Australia was able to get early information about the number of boats and people to plan an appropriate rescue response,” the AMSA said.
Read more here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-26/twelve-people-rescued-from-waters-off-horn-island-torres-strait/6807078
Australian emergency services launched a search after they received a distress signal near Balla Balla Creek.
The four were stranded when their vessel was likely swamped, and waved to the approaching aircraft sent to locate their position.
Two helicopters and two volunteer marine vessels were then launched by water and land, and a third vessel coming from a nearby fishing camp arrived first, transporting them to their vehicle and releasing the other rescue assets.
Read more here:
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/regional/north-west/a/29519568/famuly-rescued-from-pilbara-island/
The yachter tells the story of being woken to his heroic cat head-butting him to alert him, and then doing the normal course check to find the whole boat flooded.
View video and read more here about the owner reuniting with his cat who raised the alarm and likely helped save them both:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-15/cat-called-major-tom-raised-alarm-on-sinking-yacht-skipper-says/6778672
At 6:14 UTC on 16 September 2015, an alert from an ELT that belonged to a French private helicopter company was detected by MSG 2 geostationary satellite and received by the French Mission Control Center.
16 minutes later, the Cospas-Sarsat System, using the passes of SARSAT 10 and SARSAT 7 satellites and its Doppler location technology, calculated a position near Tignes, a famous skiing resort in the French Alps, France.
Thanks to the elements already registered in the beacon database by the owner, the French RCC Lyon made a direct call to the Operations office of the company which confirmed the AS 350 helicopter was gone for a technical inspection of several avalanche triggering systems with 6 persons on board.
Immediately, an EC 145 Rescue Helicopter and mountain search and rescue units were sent to the location and some minutes later they found two ski patrollers severely injured and four other people upset.
Cospas-Sarsat provided the first alert to the RCC in this case and both satellite positions were not further than 3 km from the crash site.
A Chinese bulk-carrier plucked the yachtsman and his cat from a liferaft off the Mid-West coast of Australia.
The man was flown by helicopter to hospital, having set off a distress signal when his 13m yacht started taking on water.
Read more here:
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/29515434/rescued-sailor-set-to-reunite-with-cat/
Following a tragedy in which a British visitor was drowned, boaters were urged by the Irish Coast Guard to avail themselves of a float-free EPIRB or PLB.
Cell phones and VHF radio were rendered useless in the water, and “One loss of life is one too many.”
Read more here: