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News : International Last Updated: Feb 6, 2017 - 2:32:04 PM


Cobham ACR, Personal Locator Beacon, Assists in Bahamas Rescue
By John Bell
Jun 8, 2011 - 9:51:30 AM

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Kim Landeweer

Fort Lauderdale, Florida - Cobham’s ACR personal locator beacon (PLB) was key in assisting rescuers locate a boater in the Bahamas who became stranded after a fire onboard. The incident was the second Cobham ACR PLB-assisted rescue of boaters in the Bahamas reported in the last several weeks.

Kim Landeweer, a highly experienced boater and a partner in a custom builder of exclusive sportfishing boats, was boating off Bimini with a friend when he encountered problems with his Boston Whaler. A frequent visitor to Bimini and the Bahama Out Islands, Landeweer was familiar with the surrounding waters and his options as darkness began setting in.

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ACR Personal Locator Beacon

Landeweer said he saw his oil pressure needle drop to zero, and noticed a smell of burning plastic. Landeweer said he put the boat in neutral, and saw black smoke emerging from the console. Landeweer fought the fire with an extinguisher, but the flames spread quickly and damaged the electronics.

“The radio was dead, so we decided to activate our ACR personal locator beacon,” Landeweer said.

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Companion Activating PLB

Help came around 9:30 p.m. in the form of a twin engine U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Plane flying a search pattern. Landeweer and his companion activated the PLB at 6:50 p.m., and saw the first pass of the U.S. Coast Guard plane at 9:30 p.m. They were pinpointed at 10 p.m. and towed back to shore at 11:30 p.m.

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Wire Fire Damage

ACR Electronics, www.acrelectronics.com , designs and manufactures a complete line of safety and survival products including EPIRBs, PLBs, ELTs, AIS, SARTs, Strobe Lights, Life Jacket Lights, Search Lights and safety accessories. The quality systems of this facility have been registered by UL to the ISO 9001:2008 Series Standards. Recognized as the world leader in safety and survival technologies, ACR has provided safety equipment to the aviation and marine industries as well as to the military since 1956. The company is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

About Satellite Detectible Emergency Beacons

406 MHz EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons) and PLBs transmit signals on internationally recognized distress frequencies. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) monitors the 406 MHz signal and the Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking System (COSPAS-SARSAT) detects and locates distress signals and forwards the information directly to the Coast Guard. GPS coordinates greatly assist search and rescue crews, and in the event GPS isnt acquired, position can be calculated through Doppler Shift as a reliable backup.

NOAA has reported that in 2010, Cospas-Sarsat assisted in the rescue of 180 people in 61 marine related incidents. Worldwide, the Cospas-Sarsat system is credited with rescuing more than 28,000 people since the programs inception in 1982. Of that number, more than 6,600 persons were rescued in the U.S.

An EPIRB/PLB is a satellite-signalling device of last resort, for use when all other means of self-rescue have been exhausted and where the situation is deemed to be grave and imminent, and the loss of life, limb, eyesight or valuable property will occur without assistance. All beacons must be registered online at www.beaconregistration.noaa.gov following purchase.

About Cobham

Cobham specializes in meeting the insatiable demand for data, connectivity and bandwidth in defence, security and commercial environments. Offering a technically diverse and innovative range of technologies and services, the Group protects the lives and livelihoods, responding to customer needs with agility that differentiates it. The most important thing we build is trust. Employing more than 11,000 people on five continents, the Group has customers and partners in over 100 countries, with annual revenue of £1.9bn/US$3 billion.

About Cobham Commercial Systems

Cobham Commercial Systems is a leading provider of integrated avionics systems, emergency locator systems and radar and missile electronics for military and civil customers. Cobham’s avionics systems can be offered individually or integrated to provide an entire cockpit. Its synthetic vision Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS) revolutionised safety in low-level flight operations and is now approved on more than 700 aircraft and helicopter models. Cobham’s new Helicopter Stability Augmentation System (HeliSAS) adds to its extensive range of fixed wing auto-pilot solutions and brings added safety within the reach of a host of operators for whom such systems were previously too expensive and heavy.

Cobham Commercial Systems is also an acknowledged expert in Emergency Locator Transmitter and Personal Locator Beacon technologies, from personal units to Original Equipment Manufacturer mounted systems on airliners and helicopters. Its radar and missile RF front end electronics are part of many radars, missiles, and space and commercial radar systems as well as leading edge Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) solutions.


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