Incidents · distress

Distress signal received in vicinity 52-52S 020-56E

Indian Ocean · HYDROPAC 3786/16

What this record establishes

Archived notice · 2016-12-28 13:19Z

This notice comes from the historical archive. Its archived status does not establish when or how the reported situation ended.

Source and dates: NGA MSI broadcast-warn JSON (archive, frozen 2024-05) · CAPE TOWN RADIO 060435Z DEC 16.. Issued 2016-12-06 04:39Z. First collected 2026-08-17 13:38Z; last seen in collection 2026-08-17 15:46Z. Collection dates record ingestion, not a new incident or a fresh field observation.
Location covered: Indian Ocean. The parsed report position is -52.867, 20.933. It is a position in the source message, not a live location. Check the original wording for limits and qualifications.

Original warning text

SOUTHWESTERN INDIAN OCEAN.
DNC 01, DNC 02.
DISTRESS SIGNAL RECEIVED IN VICINITY
52-52S 020-56E. VESSELS IN VICINITY REQUESTED
TO KEEP A SHARP LOOKOUT, ASSIST IF POSSIBLE.
REPORTS TO MRCC CAPE TOWN OR CAPE TOWN RADIO.

Reading this warning

DNC (Digital Nautical Chart): A reference to one of the regions of NGA's Digital Nautical Chart, used to tell the reader which charts a warning affects.
Distress signal received: A rescue centre has received an alert — from a beacon, a radio call or a satellite terminal — and is asking ships to look.
Position (degrees and minutes): How warnings write positions: degrees, a hyphen, then minutes, with N/S and E/W — 49-40.8N 003-43.8W.
Keep a sharp lookout: A request to every ship in the area to watch for the vessel, people or object described.
Assist if possible: The second half of the standard rescue request: ships able to help are asked to do so.
MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre): A rescue coordination centre for maritime cases only, such as MRCC Fort-de-France or MRCC Vietnam.

All warning terms →

Collected reports in this area · distress & casualty cases (archived)

3 within 180 nm since 2001 · 0 in the last 12 months · 0 listed in force now

Counts include repeat notices about the same situation. NGA archive coverage ends 2024-05; live collection began 2026-08-17. The period between them is incomplete. An empty year is not evidence that no hazards occurred.

Month of issue in the collected archive

All available years combined. Uneven collection and repeat bulletins affect these counts; this chart does not measure the seasonality or probability of incidents.

Nearby notices listed in force · within 120 nm

No other collected notice is currently listed in force within this radius. This does not establish safe conditions.

Worldwide in the collected sources

0 distress & casualty cases (archived) listed in force · see all

Record snapshot 2026-10-02 01:55Z; source collection times vary.

Incidents

Search-and-rescue broadcasts, published only once a case has been closed for 30 days: groundings, sinkings, capsizes, fires, man overboard, overdue vessels. Nothing here is live. All current distress & casualty cases (archived) →

Not for navigation. This is a re-rendering of an official navigational warning for awareness; mariners must use official NAVAREA broadcasts and their national MSI service.