An injured hunter was rescued in a remote forest in North Island, New Zealand, when search and rescue (SAR) authorities responded to a signal from a Fast Find 211 Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) manufactured by the company.

The hunter, Adam Fisher had accidentally shot himself in the left foot but managed to drag himself some distance to within earshot of a friend, Todd Bickerton, who was accompanying him on the trip. It was clear that he was badly wounded. Luckily Todd was equipped with his pocket sized emergency beacon, the Fast Find 211 and lost no time in activating it at 7.05 pm in the evening in total darkness. The rescue helicopter approached overhead just one hour and five minutes later and was able to land nearby.

The McMurdo Fast Find 211 works by sending a 406 MHz emergency signal via the international COSPAS SARSAT satellite system which is relayed to the country in which the Fast Find is registered, in this case New Zealand. Registration is done by the owner at the time of purchase, who provides important personal details which are encoded and decoded when the signal is received.
Adam was stabilised, stopping the bleeding, and was then airlifted to Waikato hospital for surgery. He is now undergoing a long recovery.
Todd commented “My friend would almost certainly have lost his foot and possibly his life. If I had not decided to buy a Fast Find 211 GPS the circumstances would have been much worse. I want to thank McMurdo very much for developing such a cool device that was not only small and lightweight and easy to carry around, but it worked very fast and enabled the SAR team to locate us quickly and easily, saving countless man hours.” He added “I also want to thank the three SAR guys that responded to our predicament. It was very much appreciated.”
The pair were hunting in a remote area of the Kaimanawa forest on the Tauranga Taupo river in central North Island New Zealand and were on day three of a six day trip when the accident happened.