How bad do circumstances need to be before activating a PLB?

There are three criteria to be balanced in my thinking on the situation of when and if to activate a call for help to a rescue service:

1. Do you have the skills and training to extract yourself safely from the current situation? Equally important is your assessment of what other means of communications are likely to be available in the timeframe your current emergency demands.
2. Will activating the beacon now give rescuers more time to assess the situation or do you have time to delay and avoid occupying scarce and potentially costly responder assets.
3. How long will it take for your other safety nets to trigger? How many people know where you are and when you are expected back? Will they call the authorities or just assume you are back and forgot to check in with them?

I am not advocating delaying a call for help when life is in danger, but instead to only hesitate when you are comfortable that you can handle the situation or that help is near so you can postpone calling on resources when you don't really need them. Similarly, if you are going to need help, everyone is better off if that request gets made now rather than later.

posted almost 13 years ago

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bmike‭

81 reputation 1 17 9 0

Being at fault has nothing to do with the decision. If you are in trouble and cannot extricate yourself without risk to life or making your injuries more serious, you push the button, cost be dammed.

posted over 8 years ago

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Tom‭

11 reputation 0 1 1 0

Here is how I would evaluate it.

1. Are there any immediate life threats?

2. Are you unable to safely move yourself to a place where you can be rescued, faster than help would arrive with a PLB activation?

3. Are you unable to manage or stop the life threats on your own?

If the answer to those questions is yes, then I would activate the PLB.

I would define "life threats" as things including, but not limited to the following categories:

• Breathing Problems
• Severe Bleeding
• Heart Trouble
• Broken Bones (Particularly compound fractures)
• Shock
• Hypothermia
• Poisoning

I've been in the situation of having to decide whether to activate or not. We were on a river trip in Alaskan wilderness, and one of our boats capsized. The two people in that boat got severe hypothermia as they floated down the river for ten minutes. Fortunately due to our training we were able to treat that condition after effecting the water rescue.

Had we not been in a position to remedy the hypothermia, or if there had been other traumatic injuries, I would have immediately used our PLB, with the expectation that help might have arrived within 2-4 hours, given our remote location.

posted almost 13 years ago

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dgm‭

1 reputation 0 1 0 0

Taking each one in turn:

1. If the trailhead is several hours away you're not feasibly going to be able to get there on your own with broken bones, and may seriously injure yourself further doing so.
2. Several hours away normally could turn into a lot longer if you're bitten by a rattlesnake, and again by attempting the hike rather than resting you're going to make things worse.
3. You're in pain, you've tried to call for help, no-one's come and chances are if you're out there much longer nasties like hypothermia will start to set in.

...So yes, I'd say each of those situations warrants the use of the PLB. Each is a potentially life threatening situation, each requires immediate action and, assuming you have no-one with you and no other means of contacting anyone else nearby, could be deadly unless you get help immediately.

I would guess what annoys the authorities are cases where people activate them when there's really no case of an emergency at all (I had a headache, he pulled a muscle, we're really tired, she has a few minor cuts from this rock), or people landing themselves in danger through being completely stupid (taking no / little water on a long hike in the heat, getting lost, wet and tired and so on.) That's not to say you shouldn't activate it if you find yourself in danger after being an idiot of course, but the powers that be won't be best impressed if you've landed yourself in serious trouble through your own lack of preparation.

In short, if you find yourself in a potentially deadly situation you have no other feasible way out of, I'd say activate it.

posted almost 13 years ago

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berry120‭

626 reputation 52 134 77 0

All of your situations look like emergencies, especially if you are alone. I read an article where the National Park Service was angry at use of PLBs because someone climbed a mountain and did not want to down-climb, or they were "tired" but seemed to not have nay other condition that would negatively affect their ability to walk out of the wilderness, or they had a single 1-liter canteen and ran out of water in the desert.

I believe misuse of the PLB is when you didn't do your due diligence or continue trying to solve the problem until you were out of options. I think as long as you are able to walk/self rescue, then do so. You may be asked to foot the bill for any sort of rescue, and that will likely be several thousand dollars. If it's worth 5000 bucks to get help, then you are likely ready to flip the switch.

posted almost 13 years ago

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Pulsehead‭

101 reputation 1 21 10 0

A PLB should be activated when search and rescue is required for an emergency with the danger of serious injury or loss of life, and when other emergency response methods are not available.

posted almost 13 years ago

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xpda‭

271 reputation 1 73 27 0