Safety equipment - PLB?

[JohnnyC]

The alert message and location is transmitted to whatever governmental authority is responsible for the area where the beacon's distress signal was activated, as well as the authority where it was registered. Wherever it was registered will aid the local authority in whatever capacity they are able, be it simply contacting the registrants emergency contacts and relaying pertinent information, or rending other forms of aid should it be necessary. Should the local authority be unable to affect a rescue, they may request aid as well. The US Navy often aids in rescues in the event they are nearby as they typically have far better search capabilities than most third world responders do. That doesn't mean the French are gonna send a frigate all the way to Indonesia to pick up a French tourist, but the RAAF might very well provide helicopter or P3 Orion support should the French request it. It happens more than you would think.

 

[KeithG]

For us US Citizens, they will call your designated Emergency Contact Info (Family or Friend that you've told about your traveling/diving overseas) for assurance that a particular PLB activation is not a false alarm. Then the whole SAR process chain gets started. . .

If you've planned this smartly, your designated Emergency Contact should also follow-up aggressively by calling the State Department, and the US Embassy of the foreign country that you happen to be in at the time to get things going "expeditiously". . .

SAR gets started first. then your relatives get an annoying call, especially because they have no idea what you are up to and then get pissed when they learn that you are away on some fancy vacation. if your last name is not Kennedy, then ... well the SAR continues ... hopefully

you really need to take time zone and cultural differences into account when drinking the koolaid.

 

[Kevrumbo]

SAR gets started first. then your relatives get an annoying call, especially because they have no idea what you are up to and then get pissed when they learn that you are away on some fancy vacation. if your last name is not Kennedy, then ... well the SAR continues ... hopefully

you really need to take time zone and cultural differences into account when drinking the koolaid.

"Hope is not a plan"; and "Chance favors the prepared mind". And I use whatever potential advantages "drinking the koolaid" of being a US Citizen, and a career working for the aerospace & defense contractors over the years who actually made the satellites for NOAA's SARSat constellation. You savvy giffenk?

On every overseas trip I've been on for the past ten years, I have my NOAA registered dive canistered PLB; file a mandatory pre & post trip report/detailed itinerary with the Dept of Defense because of job related Security Clearances; registered with the US State Dept Smart Traveler Website; and given full itinerary, US Embassy contact info & passport/ID copies to my Emergency Contacts, with instructions to follow-up by calling every Gov't Agency mentioned above regardless of time zone or "cultural differences". . .

If you want to be found, take measures to improve your chances of being found. Else make cynical rhetoric like you giffenk. . .

 

[charlier]

I am sure that many SB posters have way more experience diving and traveling in remote regions SE Asia. After working (not visiting) in Indonesia for over a decade, I would never rely on local SAR or coast guard for rescuing a missing diver. I cannot even imagine how the USA or Australan coast guard could assist in sovereign Indonesian waters.

 

[acidrush]

I've worked and travelled quite a bit in SE Asia over the last 20+ years. There is next to zero chance of the indonesian government allowing US or Australian planes to search their waters for missing divers. its not going to happen. It would be an insult to their national pride, blah, blah, blah. Depending on the local SAR or coast guard will depend on your luck. What time were they notified? Do they have fuel or was it already sold off? How much publicity can the relatives of the missing divers generate, etc. Lots of factors involved.

 

[Kevrumbo]

I've worked and travelled quite a bit in SE Asia over the last 20+ years. There is next to zero chance of the indonesian government allowing US or Australian planes to search their waters for missing divers. its not going to happen. It would be an insult to their national pride, blah, blah, blah. Depending on the local SAR or coast guard will depend on your luck. What time were they notified? Do they have fuel or was it already sold off? How much publicity can the relatives of the missing divers generate, etc. Lots of factors involved.

Argue for your limitations -whether real or imagined ("blah, blah, blah")- and sure enough they're all just yours. . .

 

[JohnnyC]

I've worked and travelled quite a bit in SE Asia over the last 20+ years. There is next to zero chance of the indonesian government allowing US or Australian planes to search their waters for missing divers. its not going to happen. It would be an insult to their national pride, blah, blah, blah. Depending on the local SAR or coast guard will depend on your luck. What time were they notified? Do they have fuel or was it already sold off? How much publicity can the relatives of the missing divers generate, etc. Lots of factors involved.

That's just not true. Happens all the time with refugees. The US Navy even docks in Indonesian ports. Below is a case of refugees, but a SAR alert with a US Navy ship in the vicinity will illicit a response. The Indonesians are touchy about Australia repatriating Indonesian refugees to Indonesian soil, but you better believe if it's a SAR request from a beacon, PLB, EPIRB, or otherwise, it's not just some lazy Indonesian police captain deciding not to call the dirty American Navy. That information goes straight from the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center out to any US maritime assets in the vicinity.

USS Rushmore rescues 65 stranded at sea near Indonesia - CNNPolitics.com

Check the second picture. Why do you think the US Navy has Indonesian sailors on the boat that transit those waters?

 

[Lorenzoid]

It seems to me from all of this that the probability of the system working as expected may vary around the world. For Indonesia there seem to be some data and a few anecdotes, but not a lot. The bottom line is that it's a personal decision whether one feels that carrying the PLB increases the likelihood of rescue in Indonesia enough to justify the burden of buying and carrying it. Some people seem to feel that any increase in the likelihood is enough to justify it. Others may not. At least that's what I am getting from this conversation.

 

[Kevrumbo]

An account from here in Scubaboard (a PLB, and a Life Raft used as big surface marker signal buoy would have been prudent back-ups to augment being sighted & found):

". . .The site was in Bunaken island (Sulawesi, Indonesia), known for its incredible wall dives. The plan was for a technical dive with a maximum depth of 50 meters (164ft), average 45m (148ft) . . .We had all been to this particular site before at recreational depths, and we have each 10s of dives in the Bunaken area, so we felt reasonably confident about our plan. . .

As we ascended after 30 min we realized we had drifted far away from the island and we were in the middle of a channel and could not see the boat any more (although we knew where it should be). We had launched an SMB during deco, but we were too far away for them to see it, and they were expecting us along the wall, rather than a few miles away in an orthogonal direction. The strongest swimmer in our group then decided to swim towards the entry point and try to get the boat's attention. After swimming for 2 hours, he reached the boat and 20 minutes later the boatreached us. . "

Minimum gas, underwater climbing and drifting away ...

 

[CuzzA]

I cannot even imagine how the USA or Australan coast guard could assist in sovereign Indonesian waters.