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August
12, 2002
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an
online newsletter for and by NOAA employees
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By Pat Viets Thanks to NOAA environmental satellites and the U.S. Coast Guard, a father, his 13-year-old son, and their dog, Honey, were rescued in late July from a life raft floating in the Gulf of Alaska, 90 miles southeast of Cordova. The family had abandoned their sinking, 32-foot fishing vessel. Operated by NOAA and the Russian government, the satellites are part of Sarsat, the international Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking Program, Cospas-Sarsat. A Coast Guard helicopter from Cordova came to the family's rescue after satellites detected a distress signal as the vessel began sinking after striking a large object. As the vessel sank, its 406 MHz emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) was manually activated. The signal was detected by the Cospas-Sarsat system, and NOAA's U.S. Mission Control Center notified the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard received the EPIRB signal from NOAA at 5:04 a.m., alerting them of a possible distress in the Gulf. Using the up-to-date information registered to the activated EPIRB, the Coast Guard determined that Jim Bingman, 39, his son Justin Bingman, 13, and their dog Honey were steaming from Kodiak to Ketchikan in their 32-foot fishing vessel, Reaper. A Kodiak-based helicopter crew, staged in Cordova, launched at 6:30 a.m. to search for the three. "Because they had current registration information, we were able to quickly determine the route they were taking, the number of people on board, and their vessel's description," said Petty Officer Doug Green, of the 17th Coast Guard District Rescue Coordination Center in Juneau. "You'd be amazed at how much having that information helps us do our job." All EPIRBs in the United States must be registered with NOAA's search and rescue program office. The helicopter crew located the Bingmans in a life raft at 7:40 a.m. The crew lowered 22-year-old rescue swimmer Petty Officer Chris Mann to conduct his first rescue. Mann rescued the three from their life raft and swam them to the rescue basket one at a time as Petty Officer Jeff Kaschalk hoisted them into the helicopter. "The dog was the most difficult to rescue out of the three," said Mann. "He didn't want to get in the water. I grabbed a hold of the dog, he put his paws on my arm, and I swam him to the rescue basket," said Mann. "The Bingmans did 90 percent of the work of being prepared by having a registered 406 EPIRB, having survival suits on, and having their life raft ready," said Coast Guard pilot Lt. Cmdr. Guy Pearce. "When you see that, it takes a lot of stress out of the rescue because it means these guys are well prepared." "The Search and Rescue satellite system is truly a humanitarian program," said Ajay Mehta, manager of NOAA's Sarsat program. "To date over 14,000 lives have been saved from boating and aviation accidents around world." The Cospas-Sarsat system uses a constellation of satellites in geostationary and polar orbits to detect and locate emergency beacons on vessels and aircraft in distress. NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NOAA Satellite and Information Service) represents the United States in this program, providing satellite platforms and ground equipment, and operating the U.S. Mission Control Center. NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) can instantly detect emergency signals. The polar-orbiting satellites in the system detect emergency signals as they circle the Earth from pole to pole. Emergency signals are sent to the U.S. Mission Control Center at NOAA's facility in Suitland, Md., then automatically sent to rescue forces around the world. Today there are 35 countries participating in the system. September of this year marks the 20th anniversary of the first Sarsat rescue. NOAA's Satellite and Information Service is the nation's primary source of space-based meteorological and climate data. NOAA's Satellite and Information Service operates the nation's environmental satellites, which are used for weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and other environmental applications such as fire detection, ozone monitoring, and sea surface temperature measurements. NOAA's Satellite and Information Service also operates three data centers, which house global data bases in climatology, oceanography, solid earth geophysics, marine geology and geophysics, solar-terrestrial physics, and paleoclimatology. To learn more, please visit http://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/ and http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov. |
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