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Speaker 1: Northern Territory Police had to conduct a pretty dramatic rescue

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Speaker 1: in what is described as croc infested waters in the

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Speaker 1: remote Pello Islands over the weekend after an unregistered e

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Speaker 1: PERP was activated about seventy kilometers northeast of Bora Lula.

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Speaker 1: Happened about ten pm on Friday night. The Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Police Forces Search and Rescue Section the SRS assisted the

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Speaker 1: Joint Rescue Coordination Center after that EPERB it was activated.

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Speaker 1: And joining me in the studio to tell us a

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Speaker 1: little bit more is Anti Police Search and Rescue Section Coordinator,

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Speaker 1: Acting Sergeant Chris Growth. Good morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, Chris, morning, Katie, thanks for having Yeah, good to have.

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Speaker 1: You on the show. Now, Chris, we know that this well,

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Speaker 1: this EPERB it was activated late on Friday night. What

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Speaker 1: happened next?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's what we would otherwise refer to as

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Speaker 2: a distress speech and activation and JRCC or the Joint

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Speaker 2: Rescue Coordination Center, they gave us a call about or

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Speaker 2: just making us aware of the distress beacon and for us,

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Speaker 2: the distress speaking is quite serious because it's just the

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Speaker 2: unknown factors of what's occurring. So we got the information

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Speaker 2: that was in the area of the Pelu Islands, which

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Speaker 2: is quite a remote area of the territory. And whilst

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Speaker 2: AMPSER or the Joint Rescue Coordinations and have a lot

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Speaker 2: of assets, they don't have that local ground knowledge, so

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Speaker 2: they are able to tap in that through us to

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Speaker 2: make sure that we can facilitate that search and rescue

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Speaker 2: operation safely.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, so what like obviously this went off about

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Speaker 1: ten o'clock on Friday night. How long did it take

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Speaker 1: to get out there and what happened next?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So basically what happened was the Challenger aircraft was

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Speaker 2: deployed from cans and that took about two hours to

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Speaker 2: get on scene overhead and they are able to hone

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Speaker 2: in the position of the beacon activation itself. From there,

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Speaker 2: I was able to contact king Ash Bay locals, So

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Speaker 2: Ash and DAMO down there, thanks very much for helping out.

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Speaker 2: Absolute legends. They were able to deploy pretty quickly and

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Speaker 2: get out to the scene and assist the Challenger aircraft

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Speaker 2: to getting on scene and assisting a gentleman who unfortunately

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Speaker 2: was clinging to the upturned vessel of his hull.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Now, like what state was he in when everybody

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Speaker 1: got out there?

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Speaker 2: Well, he was relieved and lucky to be in really

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Speaker 2: good health. A little bit dehydrated, who's given some water

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Speaker 2: and the guys that went out to assist him, they

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Speaker 2: recovered him back to a place of safety with not

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Speaker 2: a scratch on him. So very lucky, lucky.

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Speaker 1: So any idea how long had he been sort of

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Speaker 1: floating in the water or did he activate that EPERB immediately?

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Speaker 1: What was the guy?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so he has activated the EPERB immediately and it's

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Speaker 2: been just under four hours from once he's activated the

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Speaker 2: EPERB until we were able to get a vessel on scene.

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Speaker 2: And whilst that would have been quite harrowing for him

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Speaker 2: and felt like a really long time because of the

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Speaker 2: remoteness of the area, it kind of demonstrates how quickly

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Speaker 2: we're able to respond to those areas and in this case,

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Speaker 2: leverage off volunteers were able to help us from king

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Speaker 2: Ash Bay.

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Speaker 1: So in the end, were the police did you guys

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Speaker 1: have to get out there as well or was it

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Speaker 1: plea relying on those volunteers and coordinating them.

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Speaker 2: Yep, So we had borrow Lulla police on standby. They

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Speaker 2: were ready to go. The reason or the reason that

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Speaker 2: we used at King Ash Bay volunteers is that they're

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Speaker 2: forty five minutes to an hour ahead of Borro Lula.

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Speaker 2: And also you can't beat that local knowledge. Those guys

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Speaker 2: they live and breathe that area, they know, they patch

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Speaker 2: and at nighttime, quite difficult river systems to navigate.

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Speaker 1: What kind of state was this fifty five year old

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Speaker 1: in when they got to him.

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Speaker 2: It was in pretty good Nick, as I mentioned, like

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Speaker 2: he all considering being there for close to four hours.

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Speaker 2: He was just relieved to see someone come and help

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Speaker 2: him out.

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Speaker 1: Chris, what kind of like for those who maybe haven't

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Speaker 1: been out to that area? Like it is crocing feasted,

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Speaker 1: isn't it?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely? And it's so remote and that's what complicets these

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Speaker 2: kind of search and rescue operations, So we have to

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Speaker 2: leverage off of those volunteers or other search assets within

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Speaker 2: those regions to assist us from common time.

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Speaker 1: How is that fellow going now?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I haven't actually been able to talk to him

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Speaker 2: because he lives on the Room Island of vandal And

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Speaker 2: Island and he was actually making his way there when

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Speaker 2: the incident occurred. So he's quite lucky. And I think

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Speaker 2: a couple of lessons to take away from this one.

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Speaker 2: Eperbs or beacons saved people's lives more than anything else

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Speaker 2: in my experience, and a few things. If you're going

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Speaker 2: to have EPERB, make sure it's in date, make sure

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Speaker 2: you're registered with ANSWER, and have it within arm's reach.

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Speaker 2: Don't have it in stowed away under in a cupboard

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Speaker 2: or something like that on the vessel with some of

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Speaker 2: way you can grab it, which in this case it

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Speaker 2: sounds like this gentleman did. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So look, that's the advice I guess for locals and

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Speaker 1: visitors at this point, isn't it is make sure that

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Speaker 1: you've got your EPERB, make sure that you are equipped

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Speaker 1: when you go out there on your boat, and be

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Speaker 1: prepared for anything.

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Speaker 2: Right absolutely. And you know, in the territory we don't

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Speaker 2: have to put up with vessel registrations and things like that,

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Speaker 2: which is part of living in the territory, which is good.

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Speaker 2: But because of that, you need to be aware of

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Speaker 2: the limitations of your vessel. And in this particular case,

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Speaker 2: whilst we don't exactly know what the cause was, we

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Speaker 2: actually had a quantity of pre mixed concrete bags on

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Speaker 2: the vessel, so that combined with the average weather set,

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Speaker 2: the water running off of the vessel it's soaked up

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Speaker 2: into the bags and then cause the vessel to overturn also,

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Speaker 2: it would seem yeah.

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Speaker 1: Poor bugger. Goodness me, Well, I'm glad that he's okay.

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Speaker 1: And you'd be clinging for dear life on the whole

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Speaker 1: of that of that boat in those waters. You would

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Speaker 1: be really worried. So I'm so pleased that he's all right,

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Speaker 1: and well done to everybody involved. Well done to Ash

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Speaker 1: and Damo out there from King Ash bayhave absolutely Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they're always good blokes. I think we've had Ash on

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Speaker 1: the show a few times.

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Speaker 2: Actually, yeah, well he's a commercial fishing operator out there

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Speaker 2: and demos the local public and you know, you can't

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Speaker 2: beat a great territory story. And they were so willing

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Speaker 2: to help out when they knew that a fellow territory

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Speaker 2: and needed assistance.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, good on them, and good on you guys for

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Speaker 1: coordinating all of that. Chris, lovely to catch up with

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Speaker 1: you this morning, Thanks so much for your time.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you