Lost and found American sailors chided for no EPIRBs or HF

11:41 PM Mon 24 Jan 2011 GMT

'The Pineapple, found safe after search - chided for no HF/EPIRB' . Click Here to view large photo

Five Americans including a member of the U.S. Air Force on the catamaran The Pineapple have been reprimanded by the U.S. Coast Guard for not having sufficient communications gear to stop an unnecessary full scale search between the Philippines and Guam. They also had not filed a float plan, and had no EPIRBs on board. When the catamaran was overdue on a voyage from Guam to Cebu in the Philippines, U.S. Coast Guard had deployed a HC-130 Hercules aircraft, two Navy P-3 Orion planes, two Air Force C-12s and a patrol ship to search an area of 122,600 square nautical ...

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