Fine for false mayday

[Uglydave]

Cant imagine what must have been going through these guys heads for them to think this was a good idea
Men fined $87,000 for sea hoax : thewest.com.au

Briefly two guys made a false "On fire and sinking" mayday call got caught and were lucky to get away with an $87 000 fine.

Regards
Uglydave

[Valiente]

People say cutting out tongues is barbaric, but I'm willing to make an exception here.

Or maybe an example.

[Boasun]

Now repeat this Mantra several times a day:

Bureaucrats have no sense of HUMOR.
Bureaucrats have ho sense of HUMOR.
Bureaucrats have ho sense of HUMOR.

Or:

Never involve Bureaucrats in a prank.
Never involve Bureaucrats in a prank.
Never involve Bureaucrats in a prank.

That should help keep any Prankster out of trouble. I hope so anyway...

[mman30]

I hope they at least think about the seriousness of taking up those types of rescue resources for hours on a hoax, the two had no comment after the fine was imposed, kids these days. I hope it screws there credit up for years, makes them unable to get any financing,....... ahh off with there heads.

[Boasun]

This still doesn't cover the total costs of the search and rescue for that day. And there is the possibility of someone needing help and not receiving it in a timely manner because the rescuers have been delayed while out on the phoney Mayday.
This is why many of us besides the Bureaucrats that I had joked about don't have a sense of humor on this.

[Uglydave]

Sorry to disagree Boasun but I happen to know a couple of the SAR guys involved and this incident stretched them to the point that they were unable to respond to any other calls had they come in. just lucky that a real incident didn't occur.

[AdamLein]

I'm sort of curious as to how they were eventually discovered. Did the cops start to suspect it was a hoax and question every boat owner in the area around Karratha?

[Uglydave]

once again apologies to boasun
didnt realise the intention of your 1st post
Regards Uglydave

[Boasun]

AS I SAID: There May or may not, have been someone who would have needed that help and not receive it in a timely manner...While this kind of prank is being played out. What is there to disagree about?
Plus since the advent of EPRIBs there have been many more false alerts due to them going off because one was stowed wrong or other reasons. That is why types A, B & S are now illegal. The 406s have to be registered or they will not respond to its signal.

[Uglydave]

As to how they were found out
lots of people have radio direction finders. After the first call everyone who was involved with the rescue attempt had their direction finders switched on.Wen the next call came in it was a simple matter to triangulate everyones direction finder information to a street address in Karratha.