April 2012    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 27, No. 4   What's this?

Nautilus Lifeline: User Error or Gear Malfunction?

from the April, 2012 issue of Undercurrent  

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In last month's Flotsam & Jetsam, we reported on the search-and-rescue efforts for a 46-year-old diver who was swept away by the current while diving off Hawaii's Kaena Point. We stated how the Coast Guard helicopter crew used night-vision goggles to find him in the darkness. Well, it also helped that the diver, named Scott Folsom, flashed a light at the helicopter. Folsom, who was found in good condition, had all the emergency gear recommended for a diver to carry, from a 10-foot-tall inflatable surface marker buoy to extra oxygen. He also had the Nautilus Lifeline, the highly-touted two-way radio that is supposed to broadcast an alarm and one's GPS location to every vessel within an 11-mile radius -- but when he tried to turn it on, it didn't work....