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.
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.
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.
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 isn’
t 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 program’
s 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.