Coast Guard Rescue Crew of Five
April 9, 2008
GATES COUNTY NEWS-- Yesterday, a U.S. Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk Rescue helicopter crew from Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina rescued five people from the German flagged 43-foot sailboat "Born," which was located approximately 170-miles east of Elizabeth City. The Born had departed Washington, D.C., on Sunday en route to the Azores.
The Coast Guard was initially notified at 6:40 a.m. by a 406 MHz distress signal from the sailboat. The distress signal was generated by an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) attached to the boat. A C-130 crew was the first Coast Guard asset to arrive on the scene, and immediately indicated that the boat lost its mast and had fouled propellers due to the inclement weather. The Coast Guard decided to conduct a hoist of all five people aboard the sailboat.
The U.S. Coast Guard also released the following public notice to all mariners that beginning Feb. 1, 2009, only distress alerts from 406 MHz beacons will continue to be detected and processed by search and rescue satellites worldwide. Older model Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons or Emergency Locator Transmitters that only transmit a distress alert on 121.5 MHz or 243 MHz will not be instantly sent to search and rescue personnel. The only way these signals might be heard is by a passive radio listener tuned to the 121.5/243 MHz frequencies.
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