Self-Managed Man Overboard Locating Systems…

Rapid Alert and Locating of your own crew when 1 minute can mean the difference between life and death...…with the added advantage of integrating with Coast Guard Search & Rescue on 121.5MHz

Man Overboard Rescue – Fishing Vessel Sinks.

Crew members wearing lifejackets with Sea Marshall® Alerting Units fitted are located and rescued.

Vessel Cordero registered in Spain. The fishing vessel, with a crew of 8, had purchased 5 lifejackets with Sea Marshall PLB8-LR’SOS®’ units fitted for the deck crew. Only four crewmembers where found, three were alive, one died due to hypothermia. All of the four located individuals were wearing lifejackets with Sea Marshall® AUs fitted. Un-officially it was confirmed that the SAR helicopter received the PLB8-LR’SOS®’ signal from 30 miles. The remaining crew members were never located, it can only be assumed they were not wearing any type of lifejacket. One jacket with a Sea Marshall® AU fitted was found afloat with nobody wearing it. The vessel went down at 0139CMt off the Spanish coast in a force 10 storm with waves over 10 metres, details of exact location to be confirmed. It is believed from eye witness reports that the vessel hit a container in the middle of the storm as a loud crashing noise was heard and the vessel subsequently sank in less than 3 minutes. The ships GPS 406MHz beacon did not function correctly when automatically deployed, it did not send out a GPS position only a general alert that the vessel was sinking. SAR arrived on the scene some two and a half hours later because of this failure, despite this the SAR helicopter was able to immediately track and recover the crewmembers wearing the lifejackets with Sea Marshall AUs fitted.