Taking the search out of search and rescue

Setting up a remote orienteering course with a friend, Jill Clendon stepped forward to place a marker on a small bush. Initially she thought she would drop perhaps a few centimetres as often happens when travelling in rocky terrain, but she didn’t. Jill dropped five metres straight down into a cavern, tumbled a further four metres and then dropped another metre and a half to the bottom. Conscious but stunned, she checked herself for any injuries, nothing was broken but she could feel blood on her head and leg. She was carrying a first aid kit, spare thermal top, hat, jacket, survival blanket, head torch and her Personal Locator Beacon (PLB). She yelled up for her friend above but couldn’t initially hear her so she reached into her pack and found her PLB and activated it. By this stage Jill’s friend (who did not have a beacon on her) had realised what had happened and called out that she was on the way for help. Once she was able to contact emergency services some time later, they had already picked up Jill’s beacon signal and help was on the way. After four hours in the bottom of the cave, a rescue team member was lowered down to Jill, helped her put on a harness and was assisted to the top. “The beacon enabled rescue teams to find me immediately and get me out. I was lucky my only injuries were severe bruising, cuts, scrapes and stitches to my knee. I was amazed that the beacon was picked up so rapidly despite being out of direct line of sight of the opening and so far underground. What an amazing piece of equipment and I was so glad I had it,” says Jill. Last year in New Zealand there were 131 PLB activations with people requiring assistance from rescue services and Jill is just one of a growing number of people choosing to equip themselves with a Personal Locator Beacon.