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Accidents in sea, air and even on land are part of our present-day life. From the early days of history, with the man’s unquenchable pursuit for adventure, there have been tragic incidents, involving loss of lives and property due to disasters in sea and air. With the increasing commercial interests in travel, the essentiality of safety has been well recognized and this has led to a number of innovations in the ships and aircraft designs. Nevertheless, there has been no way to completely eliminate accidents and hence the need for a foolproof Search and Rescue (SAR) system. In any emergency, time is precious. The quicker search areas are identified the more likely a successful rescue. There are several ways that search and rescue authorities are alerted to a vessel/aircraft/person in trouble including marine radio distress calls, flares and overdue reports but space-age-technology now takes most of the search out of search and rescue, using satellites and EPIRBs. An EPIRB is an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, a compact, buoyant, self-contained radio transmitter. Activated, it continuously emits a distinctive radio signal for a minimum of 48 hours. |
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