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Celebrating the first Cospas-Sarsat Global Search and Rescue Day

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Today ( 10 September ) i s the first ' Cospas-Sarsat Global Search and Rescue Day' , and HM Coastguard colleagues are joining with t he international maritime and aviation community to c el ebrate the unique role they play in Search and Rescue .      In brief, C ospas-Sarsat is the system that detects and locates emergency beacons activated by aircraft , ships and people engaged in recreational activities in remote areas and then sends these distress alerts to search-and-rescue (SAR) authorities.     It means that if you are in distress anywhere in the world, by using the alert system, it will send your co-ordinate s (location) to the relevant SAR authorities. It’s estimated that over 60,000 lives have been saved worldwide since its inception in 1982.   There are 33 Mission Control Centres (MCCs) across the globe which serve as Ground Stations where distress alerts are received and validated before being transmitted to appropriate Rescue Coord...
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Rescue of teens trapped and in trouble at Bude

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A technical rescue tale of expert teams working together one August night. Two teenagers found themselves in serious trouble on a Saturday night on the rugged coast at Bude in Cornwall (23 August 2025) .  Their afternoon’s adventure had left them in a perilous position after the rising tide came in and trapped them , leaving no way out and creating a challenging rescue scenario for the HM Coastguard teams.     Teams at the scene working together Earlier that day, the two young men had climbed down a cliff below Upper Lynstone Caravan Park in Bude, below which there are narrow stretches of sand and rocks when the tide is out but are completely covered when the tide comes in . The pair were caught out by the tide and as they tried to climb back up the unstable, stony cliff to get away from the pounding waves , one slipped and both became trapped. To make matters worse, darkness fell and there was no-one in sight.   Luckily they had a mobile phone and cal...
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