Each year the Coast Guard and their Auxiliary spend countless
hours and dollars chasing ghosts. No, we’re not competing
with the “Ghost Busters”, we’re risking your
life and ours chasing false distress messages.
Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco estimates that 36% of
all responses were attributable to false alarms. False alarms
aren’t limited to San Francisco. In June of 2001, Coast
Guard Station Juneau (Alaska) was unable to immediately respond
to legitimate calls for assistance due to a series of false
distress messages received in a twenty-four hour period. In
January of 2000, a HH-60 helicopter was diverted from its normal
patrol for three hours – chasing phantoms.
According to the Ninth Coast Guard District, “In 1998
there were 81 hoax calls in the Great Lakes region which cost
the American taxpayer $1,275,500. Millions of dollars are spent,
not only by the Coast Guard but also by local harbor and marine
patrols. It costs approximately $400 per hour to operate a standard
rescue boat, while a helicopter or cutter may cost from $1,500
to $3,000 per hour.”
The Coast Guard reported that in New Years 2002 several Coast
Guard aircraft, a Coast Guard cutter, and more than 40 personnel
teamed with Alaska State Troopers and two police agencies spending
over 13 hours searching for the source of a hoax call in the
Kachemak Bay area of the Kenai Peninsula. No one was ever located
and the source of the call was never determined
Engaging in the transmittal of a false distress message is
not a game. In fact, the Coast Guard is deadly serious about
finding those individuals, whether adult or child, who seems
to think that calling a “mayday” into a VHF microphone,
is fun! As Mr. Baldwin found out, their can be dire legal consequences
to these actions.
And just because you’re a minor (under the age of 18
years) doesn’t get you or your parents off the hook! False
distress calls are felonies, punishable by a maximum penalty
of six years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and restitution to
the Coast Guard. This means that you, the parent can be brought
into the criminal and civil aspects of your children’s
escapades. In November 2002, two Holland, MI youths were convicted
of making false distress calls. These “pranks” cost
the US Government (that’s you and me) an estimated $20,000.
For their prank, the youths were sentenced to 20 hours of community
service.
Not all false distress messages are intentional. In January
2003, a rash of false maydays was heard around the Alameda area.
“We’ve recently received several separate mayday
calls that were transmitted in a methodical manner and without
a sense of urgency, which indicated that some mariners are assuming
this is an acceptable way to test radio signals. Nothing could
be further from the truth," said Cmdr. David Swatland,
the Eleventh Coast Guard District’s chief of search and
rescue. "Not only is it against the law to transmit a false
mayday, but these false distress calls can place the lives of
other mariners in peril because they detract from our ability
to respond to actual emergencies."
For what ever reason, false distress calls cost time, money
and put many lives in peril. To learn more about how to use
your radio, and how to mitigate potential problems while boating,
why not take a boating course? Contact your local Coast Guard
Unit (www.uscg.mil)
or Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla (www.cgaux.org).
