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Comment by beardog | Hacker News Reader

>“We got done and they were like, ‘OK, roger that, Captain,’ and I was waiting for them to say to go find them, but of course they can’t tell you to do that, so we were just like, ‘OK. We’ll go find him.’”

Why can't the coast guard tell the first responder to try to find them? As a layperson I thought civilian ships were often coordinated with to help those in distress.

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As most weird things along those lines in America, I can almost guarantee it's some sort of liability policy. They don't wanna be held responsible if a civilian gets themselves hurt/lost/killed trying to rescue someone, or does the same to the person they're trying to rescue, having being asked to or "ordered" by someone in a perceived position of authority like a coast guard officer.

I was thinking it was comparable to CPR/first aid instructions from 911 calls however seafaring is inherently more risky...

Makes me wonder if, in this age of Covid, 911 operators would ask callers to perform CPR. Even a "Do you know how to perform CPR" might be interpreted as an instruction to do so.

It makes a lot of sense to me in this case. As you suggest, even a "if you don't mind" from the Coast Guard could very reasonably be taken as a polite order which they may not have the authority to do in this case.

>They don't wanna be held responsible if a civilian gets themselves hurt/lost/killed trying to rescue someone,

That seems like a not unreasonable concern even if there was probably no material danger in this case.

That's not true. I don't know what happened in this incident, but the Coast Guard does have an official policy to request civilian assistance in some scenarios.

Section 4.1 Maritime SAR Assistance Policy (MSAP) http://uscgaux1201.org/documents/files/MSAP_2E.pdf

Don't you have some responsibilities in this case? If you see someone drowning with no one else but you, you are expected to theow at least a life vest

I don't see much difference here, they have the gps data and are the closest people available. IMO it is their responsibility at that point. Imo the coast guard's "order" would be only a reminder of that responsibility?

Because if you tell some boating noob, they might not proceed carefully enough to see a victim or they might multiply the number of victims by making careless mistakes trying to be heroes.

It does seem a bit at odds with my experience monitoring VHF 16 while sailing. When someone is in distress or there is a report of an unmanned kayak (extremely common!), the Coast Guard will almost always put out a call for any mariners in the vicinity to check it out, report back, and provide aid.

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