GME EPIRBs found to be faulty

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Silverado

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The Irish Minister for the Marine has just ordered an investigation into GME EPIRBs after it has been discovered that a number of them failed and have recently resulted in the tragic deaths of three fishermen off the south coast of Ireland. A Government investigation of the wreckage found that the GME EPIRB had been deployed but it did not transmit. This resulted in the deaths of the entire crew about a mile offshore in Tramore bay near Waterford last June.

The faults have been found in some models of the Australian manufactured GME and though they would appear to test properly, in reality they would not transmit when required. Remember that when you test it does not actually transmit so you are relying on the device's testing mechanism to report a problem.

The particular model used on the fishing boat was the MT400. So far the company has not ordered a recall but it seems they have exchanged some devices when requested.

See this thread http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/sh...ME-EPIRB-SAFETY-ALERT-microprocessor-failures
 
Thanks for the heads up.
I have a GME MT400 on my boat so Im concerned.
I had the battery changed by Sartech about a year ago and the "service" included a test.
I just hope their test went a bit further than pressing the test buttom :confused:
 
I also have that exact model but having used it in anger a few years ago I know it works (well it did then) and after that the battery was replaced by Sartech who when testing do a live transmit in some kind of sealed room so I'm sure they would mention if something was wrong with it.
 
dazautomatics said:
Also have one of these and had the misfortune to use it in anger, and can report 5 days of accurate position transmitted and 2 more days of less accurate position before the battery gave up :-)
Click to expand...

It would be extremely foolish to disregard this warning because of a few incidents of some activations that worked. The original post did not say there was 100% failure!!!
There is a fault on some of these units and at least three deaths have been linked to them, and there is another possible case in the same region of more deaths being investigated! These unfotunate men died of hypothermia waiting for rescue .
Just imagine the horror of it, you have this super piece of technology that you believe to be completely reliable and that rescue is imminent,but no one comes, no lifeboat, no helicopter, no other boats in the area are diverted to your location!! and these tragedies occured just a few miles from the coast, had the units worked it is very likely that those men would be alive today. Nothing less than 100% reliability is acceptable.

We are now on the beginning of the transatlantic season on this part of the globe and I believe that no one shoud disregard this warning. If I were setting out on an ocean passage with a GME unit manufactured in the time period specified, I would feel it incumbant upon me for the safety of my crew to have the unit replaced or a back up unit. We should spread the word about this urgently to all, as the company must have known about this for sometime now, and have still not acted on it.
Paul
 
pauldoody said:
It would be extremely foolish to disregard this warning because of a few incidents of some activations that worked. The original post did not say there was 100% failure!!!
There is a fault on some of these units and at least three deaths have been linked to them, and there is another possible case in the same region of more deaths being investigated! These unfotunate men died of hypothermia waiting for rescue .
Just imagine the horror of it, you have this super piece of technology that you believe to be completely reliable and that rescue is imminent,but no one comes, no lifeboat, no helicopter, no other boats in the area are diverted to your location!! and these tragedies occured just a few miles from the coast, had the units worked it is very likely that those men would be alive today. Nothing less than 100% reliability is acceptable.

We are now on the beginning of the transatlantic season on this part of the globe and I believe that no one shoud disregard this warning. If I were setting out on an ocean passage with a GME unit manufactured in the time period specified, I would feel it incumbant upon me for the safety of my crew to have the unit replaced or a back up unit. We should spread the word about this urgently to all, as the company must have known about this for sometime now, and have still not acted on it.
Paul
Click to expand...

Yes it would be foolish to ignore it but noone was saying 'oh its ok just ignore it 'cos mine works'

GME do know about it and have acted on it but as with all these things it can take time to trickle out to the end users who do not scour every bit of info being released.

The link that matters is this one http://www.gme.net.au/public/pdf/brochures/epirb safety alert.pdf

Anyone with a GME epirb should read that and do the test, but will that be enough to really put anyones mind at rest.
 
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