PLBs: a simple device that can save lives at sea

Personal locator beacons (PLBs) are emergency rescue service aids that emit a signal allowing rescuers to use GPS co-ordinates to find workers who are stranded.

Used by hikers, mountaineers, and increasingly by those working at sea, it is a simple technological solution that can make the difference between life and death.

For IMCA and those working offshore, it has huge potential to improve safety. This is why we are supporting Jason’s Beacon, a Texas-based non-profit, with a £10,000 (US$11,150) donation to provide beacons free of charge to verified offshore personnel working with US-based companies.

The charity was founded in 2021 by the family of Jason Willis Krell who died in the Seacor Power disaster on 13 April 2021, the biggest maritime disaster in Louisiana’s history in terms of loss of life.

Thirteen crew died of which seven were never found, including Jason, after the lift boat encountered severe weather due to an approaching storm en route to an offshore project in the Gulf of Mexico.

All of this was despite intense air, water-surface, and diver vessel search.

In response to this tragedy, the family of Jason came together, and the idea of Jason’s Beacon was born. An organisation which can use its collective purchasing power to cost-effectively get PLBs into the hands of US offshore workers.

As the president of Jason’s Beacon, Debbie Burt told IMCA, “Survivors will share stories about how in broad daylight, boats passed right by them, or helicopters flew over them before they were finally rescued. My heart hurts to think of how many other men and women have had a similar experience but were never rescued. There is a solution: personal locator beacons.”

While we are delighted to support such a worthy cause as an organisation, we feel that more needs to be done. A first step has been the recent release of the latest version of our Guidance on PLB devices (IMCA M234). We also continue to explore how to incorporate the use of PLBs into IMCA’s Technical Library that outlines the current recommended best practice for safer working offshore.

Furthermore, IMCA, in its role as a facilitator for major sector wide conversations on safety, can play a key role in bringing its Members, regulators, legislators and PLB manufacturers together to kick-start the conversations required to improve their take up across the offshore industry.

This begins at the IMCA Global Summit in Utrecht on 3-4 December, where we will hear from Fugro’s Kevin Barron about the Seacor Power disaster and how PLBs could dramatically improve rescue rates for search and rescue.

We hope Kevin’s presentation will inspire the business leaders attending to champion PLBs within their own organisations.

However, for this to be truly transformational, we will need to spread this conversation far and wide and beyond our membership base. We look forward to championing PLBs in the months and years to come for what they are – a simple and cost-effective device that saves lives at sea.