Incidents · distress

Distress signal received from M/V van don 02 in 19-00N 111-39E

South China Sea · HYDROPAC 579/03

What this record establishes

Archived notice · 2003-03-31 09:20Z

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) · MRCC HONG KONG 45/03 POR EGC#3465 310031Z MAR 03; NAVAREA XIV 50/03 302131Z MAR 03. Issued 2003-03-31 00:58Z. 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: South China Sea. The parsed report position is 19.000, 111.650. It is a position in the source message, not a live location. Check the original wording for limits and qualifications.

Original warning text

1. DISTRESS SIGNAL RECEIVED FROM M/V VAN DON 02
   IN 19-00N 111-39E. VESSELS IN VICINITY
   REQUESTED TO KEEP A SHARP LOOKOUT,
   ASSIST IF POSSIBLE. REPORTS TO
   MRCC HONG KONG, TELEX: 802 82952.
2. CANCEL HYDROPAC 504/03(76).

Reading this warning

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.
Cancellation reference: A line that cancels an earlier warning by its number, such as CANCEL HYDROLANT 1085/12.
HYDROPAC: The U.S. long-range warning series for the Pacific outside NAVAREA XII and for the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and adjoining seas.

All warning terms →

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

172 within 180 nm since 2000 · 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 2026-10-01 23:00Z; 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.