Rescue services would have arrived sooner to help a trawler sinking off the north Northumberland coast last year had it been equipped with a GPS enabled EPIRB, a report has said. The U.K. Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) is circulating a safety flyer to fishing vessels to provide lessons learned from its investigation of the capsize and [...]
Sean McGuigan and Andrew Warner are planning to row 3,000 miles from the Canary Islands to Antigua to raise cash for local charities The Alzheimer’s Society and St Clare’s Hospice. But upon making final inspections Mr. McGuigan noticed that his EPIRB beacon had been stolen. The beacon is an important safety device for the ocean crossing and [...]
A boater activated his EPIRB beacon after having problems at sea, but because the unit was an obsolete 121.5 MHz beacon it is no longer detected by the satellite systems. While the distress signal went undetected he was discovered when a vessel happened to pass by. 121.5 MHz distress beacons were phased out in 2009, to be [...]
An EPIRB alert in Michigan cause the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) to activate the Michigan Wing of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) on 11/9/2015 to perform a search operation. Used on boats, EPIRBs contact emergency crews in the event of a sinking or other emergency and broadcast at a designated frequency via satellite. When [...]
On June 12th, 2013 Paul (49), Kenny (47) and Shane (44) Bolger who were all brothers and natives of Passage East of died. It has been found that the signalling device which should have sent a beacon to the emergency services when their vessel ran into trouble failed to go off. Evidence found during the investigation by [...]
Florida lawmakers Sen. Joe Negron (R-Stuart) and Rep. MaryLynn Magar (R-Tequesta) are introducing bills that would reduce annual boat registration fees for vessels with EPIRBs or PLBs installed. They were joined by Blu Stephanos, the father of one of the teens lost last summer has made boater safety a personal mission. The boys left Jupiter [...]
A West Australian coroner has asked the state government to recommend skippers train their crew on activation of EPIRB beacons after an examination into the drowning of a 49-year-old recreational angler. Paul Gregory Clifton had been fishing with his sibling and two companions in June 2013 when his watercraft began to take on water and rapidly sank in rough oceans. The [...]
