NOAA SEARCH AND RESCUE SATELLITE SAVES FISHERMEN’s LIVES

July 17, 2003 — Thanks to the combined efforts of NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard, five crew-members from a New Bedford, Mass.-based fishing boat were rescued Wednesday night shortly after their vessel sank 60 miles east of Cape Cod. Crew members stated the F/V ILHA BRAVA was taking on water and sank so quickly they were not able to issue a radio call for help. Fortunately for the crew the fishing boat was equipped with an Emergency Position-indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB), which is automatically activated in an emergency situation. (Click NOAA image for larger view of Sarsat system. Click here to view high resolution version. Please note that this file is 934k.)

Once activated EPIRBs send out digital distress signals on the 406-megahertz frequency, which are detected by the NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites and Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites. GOES, the first to detect a beacon’s distress signal, hover in a fixed orbit above Earth and receive the signals, which contain registration information about the beacon and its owner. The POES constantly circle the globe, enabling them to capture and accurately locate the alerts.

At 10:05 p.m. EDT Wednesday personnel at the U.S. Mission Control Center located at the NOAA Satellite and Information Center in Suitland, Md., picked up the distress signal from the ILHA BRAVA’s EPIRB and immediately forwarded the alert to the U.S. Coast Guard’s District One Rescue Coordination Center in Boston, Mass. The Coast Guard dispatched an HH-60 rescue helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod. Coast Guard personnel were able to acquire and pinpoint the EPIRB’s homing signal to rescue the crew. All five fishermen were hoisted aboard and flown to a hospital in Falmouth, Mass. (Click NOAA image for larger view of Sarsat Mission Control Center. Click here for high resolution version, which is a large file. Please credit “NOAA.")

“These fishermen helped us save their lives. The EPIRB told us where to search, and their life raft kept them out of the cold Atlantic until the Coast Guard could get them to safety,” said Ajay Mehta, manager for the NOAA SARSAT (Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking) Program. “This particular rescue dramatically demonstrates how effective COSPAS-SARSAT is at taking the ‘search’ out of search and rescue.”

The satellites used in this rescue are part of the worldwide satellite search and rescue system called, COSPAS-SARSAT. The COSPAS-SARSAT system is a cluster of NOAA and Russian satellites that work together to detect distress signals anywhere in the world from emergency beacons used aboard ships, airplanes or carried by persons. SARSAT technology is used in EPIRBs, Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs) on aircraft and is now available for outdoor enthusiasts in Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs).

NOAA Satellites and Information is the nation’s primary source of space-based meteorological and climate data. It operates the nation’s environmental satellites, which are used for weather and ocean observation and forecasting, climate monitoring and other environmental applications, including sea-surface temperature, fire detection and ozone monitoring.

NOAA Satellites and Information also operates three data centers, which house global databases in climatology, oceanography, solid Earth geophysics, marine geology and geophysics, solar-terrestrial physics and paleoclimatology.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation’s coastal and marine resources. NOAA is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA’s Role in the Cospas-Sarsat Program

NOAA Satellite and Information

NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES)

Hikers and Outdoor Adventurers to Have Same Satellite Protection as Pilots and Mariners

Cospas-Sarsat Search and Rescue System—Taking the "Search" out of "Search and Rescue"

NOAA Satellites

Media Contact:
Dave Miller, NOAA, (202) 482-6090