Unalaska, AK – The National Transportation and Safety Board recommends that the Federal Communications Commission require all commercial vessels to carry emergency position-indicating radio beacons that transmit vessel specific position data that can be read by all satellites. Though vessels are required to carry EPRIBs, the EPIRBs are not required to be equipped with GPS tracking equipment that tells all types of satellites exactly where the boat is located. An EPIRB only includes position data that can be read by low earth-orbiting (LEO) satellites, which travel from pole to pole at an altitude of 600 miles and will pass over a given location only every 50 to 75 minutes.

The NTSB recently issued the safety recommendation because of a vessel sinking near New Jersey. The 71-foot long F/V Lady Mary went down on March 24, 2009 and six crew members died. Though their EPIRB went off, it did not transmit position data, and it was incorrectly registered with NOAA. An hour after the EPIRB signal went off, a satellite passed over the area that could tell its position. NTSB believes that if the if the Coast Guard received the location information an hour earlier, more than one of the crew members could have been saved, and the bodies of those who died could have been located. Two bodies were recovered later by divers and fishermen and two were never found.

The NTSB recommends that the FCC change federal laws and require all vessels carry GPS-equipped EPIRB devices. Manufacturers told the NTSB that the GPS addition costs about $100.