Alert 01 – 08 EPIRB Operational Matters
WHAT HAPPENED:
A French fishing vessel sank off the French Antilles in February 1999. There was a delay by the COSPAS-SARSAT system in locating the beacon used by the crew in a liferaft. An examination of the position location revealed that the beacon had initially been detected for a brief interval and thereafter not at all while on board the liferaft.