On 15 August 2012, a man was rescued from his sailing boat thanks to a COSPAS-SARSAT beacon, which provided the only alert in this distress incident.
At 1752, MRCC Gris-Nez received an initial distress alert from a French 406 MHz EPIRB beacon. This first alert did not provide a location, and MRCC Gris-Nez tried to contact the owner by phone and others means without success. At 1815, the French sailboat was located, thanks to its COSPAS-SARSAT beacon, near Cape Cornwall.
MRCC Falmouth assumed coordination, scrambled one helicopter and diverted a motor vessel on scene. On arriving on scene the helicopter conducted a prolonged search in very poor weather, finally seeing a red flare which located the yacht. The yacht’s single crewman elected to jump into the water on seeing the helicopter, which caused concern to the crew. Despite the perilous weather conditions, the helicopter crew were able to winch the sailor to safety. The sailor was found to have a broken ankle and was evacuated to Trelisk hospital in the UK.
