Deaths of tug crew off Newfoundland raise questions about survival suit designs

摘要

The deaths of two mariners after their tugboat sank in modest seas off the coast of Newfoundland have raised new questions about government standards for survival suits in Canada. Larry Parsons and Christopher Oram were taking the tug Check-Mate III from Wesleyville, Newfoundland to St. John's on Jan. 31 when the vessel suddenly took on water and sank in six-foot seas, the Canadian Coast Guard said (see PM#113). The men, who sent a distress call and then abandoned ship after donning their survival suits, were located 90 minutes later by a Department of National Defence helicopter. A decision was made to wait for the Coast Guard vessel George R. Pearkes, which was also en route as part of the rescue effort, but when it arrived one of the men was dead and the other could not be revived. They had been in the water for less than two hours. "Both survival suits had considerable water (in them)," Kevin Barnes, a maritime search and rescue coordinator, told The Canadian Press. "Somehow water got in, which reduces the thermal ability of the suits to keep you alive."