Quote:
Originally Posted by thinkxingu
Kate Matrosova had a PLB, but it didn't save her life. Although they can be useful, in her case it pinged off different towers and led to different location signals. Most likely it was because it was still in her backpack and not oriented correctly.
There's also the reality that the user has to be in the right frame of mind to use it.
The reality is that all the safety gear in the world reduces the risk but does not cancel it out altogether.
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I just read a little about Kate. Her accident chain began when she decided to go hiking in spite of a blizzard warning. Then apparently she wasn't carrying the equipment required to survive should the blizzard hit. She probably thought she could beat the weather. Unfortunately weather doesn't always follow the forecaster's schedule. I fly small aircraft and this happens a lot.
The PLB issue was unfortunate, but apparently the first signal pointed very close where she was found. Newer PLBs use gps for location and transmit to satellites. They are supposed to be very reliable. I've never owned or used one though. I hope I would not put myself into a situation like this, but I'm sure these ladies didn't think they were putting themselves into a situation like this when they started their hikes.
It's very sad.