Wednesday, Jan 15, 2003 at 09:31
I agree with Oziexplorer about response times.
I was a professional Radio Operator in long range fixed communications in my time in the army, and as such was involved in many S.A.R. alerts to provide back up "direction finding" [D.F.] facilities at the request of the S.A.R authority in
Canberra.
These S.A.R. targets were both on land and sea, and on one occasion an accidental triggering of a hijack alarm on a commercial aircraft en route from
Darwin to Singapore.
The end result of that little incident was a full scale alert at Paya Lebar airport in Singapore, and a very red faced Greek pilot answering lots of questions on arrival :) :).
I can assure you there is no 2 hour waiting time when any emergency button is triggered.
I personally carry an EPIRB in the bush.
There was a very sad instance in the
Toowoomba area about 18 months ago where a
young but experienced bushwalker went on a solo bushwalk towards the Lamington Plateau from
Toowoomba.
The poor
young bloke slipped and fell down a
cliff face injuring himself badly in the process.
He had a mobile phone with him and tried to call for help but his signal kept drifting in and out due to poor coverage area.
By the time he was missed it was too late. Search teams looked for days but by the time the
young bloke was located he had died from his injuries and exposure.
Sadly, he may have been alive today if he had carried an EPIRB.
better safe than sorry
Enjoy the bush
DennisN
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