The pilot of the rowboat Alba had a noble goal – to raise awareness and funds for the Scottish Association for Mental Health.
The pilot of the rowboat Alba had a noble goal – to raise awareness and funds for the Scottish Association for Mental Health. And he was going to row 3,400 nautical miles, from Norfolk, Va., to his home in Scotland, to do it.
But on June 15, 2018, when he faced life-threatening danger as his boat began to take on water off Nantucket, Massachusetts, he did the right thing. He set off his Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, called an EPIRB, and a NOAA satellite picked up his distress signal. First responders soon rescued him, about 39 miles off the coast.
He was among the 340 people rescued within the United States and its surrounding waters with the help of NOAA satellites last year. Of those rescues, 219 were from the water, 32 were from aviation incidents and 89 were on land, using personal locator beacons, or PLBs.
Read more at NOAA
Image: Sarsat rescues for 2018. CREDIT: NOAA
