Gonna guess that lifeboats on a ship that are cast off due to an emergency will have some sort of beacon.
But, isn’t this some kind of “not that,” as in, “hey let’s take this lifeboat we got from somewhere, add some solar panels and an electric motor and boat across the Atlantic to show people that it’s possible!”?
From the article -
It is not clear why the couple abandoned the Theros and got into a lifeboat.
Brett Clibbery, 70, and his wife, Sarah Packwood, 60, had been sailing on their 42-foot sailboat the SV Theros, but their bodies were found in a lifeboat that washed up on Sable Island, Nova Scotia, according to a statement from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), published July 12.
Oh, OK, I understand now after reading past the shitty headline. They were NOT attempting to cross the Atlantic in the lifeboat. They had to abandon their sailboat.
But, yes, stupid not to have an emergency beacon on the lifeboat AT ALL TIMES, in case of emergency castoff.
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Agreed. Therefore they are an appropriate addition to this thread (But RIP anyway because they sound like cool people in spite of their stupidity.)
So…after Titanic, large ocean-going ships were required to have a radio operator listening to two frequencies at all times, just in case someone called SOS. Those days ended 20ish (?) years ago.
These days for ordinary distress calls on the ocean, ships have computerized shortwave radios. Push a button, and it will try sending an automated message on certain frequencies that the Coast Guard monitors…but the nature of shortwave radio is that it’s not foolproof, especially when the sun is being active. If/when the Coast Guard receives the signal, they automagically know how to contact you, and they do so.
They would also have had an EPIRB - a big yellow plastic waterproof box with a button. When you push the button or when the box gets very wet, it sends a signal, usually including GPS coordinates, that would be picked up by a satellite and relayed to the Coast Guard.
EPIRBs and registration of the EPIRBs are not cheap. For that reason, most normal yachts would normally only have one, preferably kept someplace protected from the elements, but where it could be quickly grabbed if they had to abandon ship and either carried with them, or be tossed into the water.
However, if something happened so quickly that they couldn’t access it, or if it failed to work correctly…
I believe that even if they had multiple EPIRBs (or the mini equivalent, a PLB - personal locator beacon), you wouldn’t store one with the lifeboat due to the risk of it accidentally activating if it got wet in rough seas, or the increased risk of malfunction due to being exposed to the elements for an extended period of time.
Nope. We still don’t know how it happened. Something may have malfunctioned or was damaged or they were terribly unlucky. If we find out what happened and it was extraordinarily stupid, then they can be added.
Darwin Awards are for people who do really stupid stuff - “Darwin Award winners eliminate themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner” - Wiki article.
I think being on a lifeboat that was either
A) not equipped with an emergency beacon in the first place or
B) equipped with an emergency beacon that they did not activate
qualifies them for Darwin awards.
It’s conceivable I could be persuaded that it was reasonable for them to believe they had a properly functioning beacon that actually wasn’t properly functioning, but I kinda doubt it.
Except that she was past child-bearing age and he wasn’t likely to father any future kids.
(Yes, I know you want to ignore that aspect, but without it the award really doesn’t have anything to do with Darwin…)
From the article:
How long were they there, exactly?
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The zombie apocalypse is nigh.
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Don’t tell Spirit or they will invent a super saver class of tickets.
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I wonder if the first body was from one flight and a second person got in on a later flight and after the flight took off noticed the body and thought “Wait, what, you can die doing this?” Like Indiana Jones at the start of raiders of the lost ark.
At least it wasn’t the Donner Canyon falls.
I guess I don’t really buy the story but if true…
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