Coast Guard responds to two more distress signals

One turns out to be false alarm, search on for cadet in second

Mumbai: After responding to the distress call of the yacht Lady Thuraya last week, the Indian Coast Guard Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) has over the past week been engaged with two more distress calls from the rough high sea off the coast of Mumbai.

While the latest distress call, received on Tuesday night from merchant vessel MV Chief from Antigua and Barbuda, turned out to be a false alarm, the second pertains to Mexican sail training ship Cuauhtemoc , from which a female cadet fell overboard on Sunday.

The MRCC received a distress signal from

MV Chief around 9.20 p.m. on Tuesday, when the vessel was 975 nautical miles off the coast of Mumbai. Unable to communicate directly with the vessel, the MRCC initially could not confirm the distress signal or identify the nature of the problem. But on Wednesday evening, the MRCC was able to contact

MV Chief , which confirmed that the vessel distress signal had been accidentally activated due to the weather conditions.

“Around 90% of the distress signals we receive are accidentally activated when the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon fitted in vessels come in contact with water due to large waves and rainfall,” an official from the MRCC told

The Hindu .

In the second operation, a female cadet who was not wearing a life jacket fell overboard from the Cuauhtemoc at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The MRCC received the vessel’s distress signal at 8 p.m the same day, when the ship was 570 nautical miles off the coast. The ship, which was on a training and diplomatic mission, was due to halt in Mumbai.

The Indian Navy launched the mission on June 11, with a Boeing P8I (Poseidon Eight India), a long-range maritime patrol aircraft, and the Mexican ship itself searching for the cadet. The Navy diverted INS Teg, which was en route to Mumbai from Port Louis, Mauritius, and INS Mysore to join the search. The MRCC issued an International Safety Net, whereby ships passing by are requested to search for the cadet.