FYI: > Tuesday January 26 9:10 PM ET > > Coast Guard Recommend Mayday Change > > By BRUCE SMITH Associated Press Writer > > CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - Coast Guard investigators recommended Tuesday that all mayday > calls be considered legitimate until thoroughly checked. > > The recommendation follows a 1997 sinking of a sailboat that claimed four lives. A radio distress > call from the stricken vessel and a subsequent report of voices in the water did not prompt a Coast > Guard search. > > Tuesday's report from investigators looking into the sinking of the 34-foot Morning Dew released > came a week before the National Transportation Safety Board holds hearings into the wreck. > > Following the report, Commandant James Loy has ordered a review of U.S. Coast Guard rules on > responding to distress calls. > > The NTSB is also looking into the whether the Coast Guard botched the handling of a distress call > from the clamming boat Adriatic, which went down off Barnegat, N.J., last week. The crewman are > presumed dead. > > In that case, the Coast Guard said the mayday message was unintelligible and did not contain enough > information to launch a search. > > The Coast Guard receives many false distress calls from mariners. But the report recommended the > agency consider all mayday broadcasts legitimate until proven otherwise. > > That's not what happened when the Morning Dew sank on a Charleston Harbor jetty on Dec. 29, > 1997, killing Michael Wayne Cornett, 49, his sons Paul, 16, and Daniel, 14, and nephew Bobby > Lee Hurd, 14 > > The vessel went down in rough weather. > > The Morning Dew radioed a brief distress message at 2:17 a.m. The Coast Guard tried three times > to radio back but got no response. No search was launched because there was not enough > information about the vessel's location. > > About four hours later, a crewman on a passing ship reported calls for help from the water. A > harbor pilot boat searched, but the Coast Guard did not. > > The officer on watch who received the radio message said he did not hear the word ``mayday.'' > > The Coast Guard got involved when the wreck was seen on the jetty after daylight. > > The report recommended ``search planners must engage in aggressive detective work'' if they can't > tell where a signal is coming from. > > An urgent broadcast should be made to all vessels, not just a callback to the vessel that radioed. > And officers must replay the tape of the distress call, something not immediately done in the Morning > Dew case. > > If a message is thought to be fraudulent, the tape must be replayed for a superior officer and then the > district command center. If all agree the call is false, no other action is required, the report > recommended. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
In a message dated 1/26/1999 10:21:00 PM EST, rcc7_at_ix.netcom.com writes: << FYI: > Tuesday January 26 9:10 PM ET > > Coast Guard Recommend Mayday Change > > By BRUCE SMITH Associated Press Writer > > CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - Coast Guard investigators recommended Tuesday that all mayday > calls be considered legitimate until thoroughly checked. > > The recommendation follows a 1997 sinking of a sailboat that claimed four lives. A radio distress > call from the stricken vessel and a subsequent report of voices in the water did not prompt a Coast > Guard search. > >> Not a pleasing thought, but this pretty much sums up what I postedseveral months ago when I said that if in a real emergency, you would be better off radioing another boat than the Coast Guard. They have the responsibility, but are spread very thin, much more thin than the plethora of private and commercial boats plying the near shore waters. I hope this is a wake uop call for them. To their credit, I have monitored several vessel distress calls they have responded to admirably. But in all cases, it was a long time from "first call" until the CG "arival" on scene. John *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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