A German sailor survived more than 25 hours in the North Sea, only
wearing lightweight clothing and inflatable life jacket in water that
kept a temperature of approx. 17°C.

Several hours before he was found alive, the Danish sea rescue service,
who was in charge of the SAR operation, had cancelled the SAR operation
as he then was presumed dead of hypothermia because their tables told
then that survival is close to zero after about 14 hours at present
water temperature...

After this incident, it is now assumed that the Danish sea rescue
service will have to fully reconsider and rewrite all their SAR-routines
from scratch...

As part of the story, a representative for the Norwegian sea rescue
service (that also cover major portions of the North Sea) said that the
Norwegian sea rescue service would not have cancelled any SAR operation
before at least 48 hours has elapsed, no matter what the present water
temperature is.



Stig Arne Bye

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