Cospas-Sarsat Distress Alerts During 2006

Since its inception in 1982 the Cospas-Sarsat System has provided distress alert information which has assisted in the rescue of over 22,412 persons in 6,204 distress situations. In 2006 the System provided information which was used to rescue 1,881 persons in 452 distress situations. The locations of these events are depicted on the map below.

The details for specific SAR events assisted by Cospas-Sarsat during 2006, as reported by national Administrations to the Cospas-Sarsat Secretariat, are provided in Annex C to document C/S R.007 "Cospas-Sarsat Report on System Status and Operations".

Annex C provides both overall statistical information as well as a short description of each SAR event for which Cospas-Sarsat data was instrumental. Each alert is categorized as either an:

Only Alert-	Cospas-Sarsat was the only source of information provided to SAR authorities;
First Alert -	Cospas-Sarsat was the first source of information provided to SAR authorities; or
Supporting Data -	Information provided by the Cospas-Sarsat System which was not the first or only alert, but was used in conjunction with information from other sources in the SAR operation.

Distress Events for which Cospas-Sarsat data was provided to SAR services but not used because the necessary information had previously been provided by another source or the distress situation had already been resolved, are indicated with italicized text. These SAR events were not included in the Cospas-Sarsat summary statistics.