Authorities also made radio contact with pair in June when they reported being OK and expected to make landfall soon

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The two Hawaii women who were lost at sea for five months had an emergency beacon aboard their sailboat that was never activated, the US Coast Guard has said.

Spokesman Lieutenant Scott Carr said a review of the incident and subsequent interviews with the survivors revealed that they had an emergency position indicating radio beacon (Epirb) on board.

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The women told the Associated Press on Friday about a number of other communications devices but did not mention the Epirb. The device, which sends a distress signal and location, can be activated manually, or switches on automatically when submerged in water.

During the post-incident debriefing by the coast guard, Jennifer Appel, who was on the sailboat with Tasha Fuiava, was asked if she had an emergency beacon on board. Appel replied she did and that it was properly registered.

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Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer 2nd Class Tara Molle said: “We asked why during this course of time did they not activate the Epirb.

“She had stated they never felt like they were truly in distress, like in a 24-hour period they were going to die.”



Carr said the coast guard made radio contact with a vessel that identified itself as the Sea Nymph in June near Tahiti, and the captain said they were not in distress and expected to make land the next morning. That was after the women reportedly lost their engines and sustained damage to their rigging and mast.

Experts say some of the details of the women’s story do not add up. A retired coast guard officer who was responsible for search and rescue operations said that if the women had used the Epirb they would have been found.

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“If the thing was operational and it was turned on, a signal should have been received very, very quickly that this vessel was in distress,” Phillip R Johnson said.

The beacons are solid and built to be suddenly dropped in the ocean. “Failures are really rare,” Johnson said, though old and weak batteries could cause one.

The women also said they had six forms of communication that all went dead. “There’s something wrong there,” Johnson said.

He knew of cases in remote Alaska where a ship in distress used just one form of signal and brought a fairly quick response from nearby fishing boats and the coast guard.

“I’ve never heard of all that stuff going out at the same time,” he said.