b'FOGHORN FOCUS Risk Mitigation Strategies TO COPE WITH A MASS RESCUE EVENTMARK D. BOBAL + GEORGE BUTLER // PASSENGER VESSEL SAFETY SPECIALISTSThe following is a synopsis of a session the authors gave at the 2022 PVA Convention at MariTrends focusing on what to do if you are a vessel in distress or must deal with a mass rescue incident. T he one question you should ask yourselves, whether you are ato a place of safety, and a mass rescue operation as characterized by T-boat of 20 passengers or a K-boat dinner cruise that enter- the need for immediate response to large numbers of persons in distress tains 800, is if you are operationally ready for the one percentsuch that the capabilities normally available to the search and rescue low-probability/high-consequenceevent?Howcanyouroperation(SAR) authorities are inadequate.prepare for a mass rescue operation (MRO) event?Some U.S. MRO events that come to mind are: For this article, we are not talking about the ninety-nine percent of search and rescue cases that are handled by the U.S. Coast Guard orEastland capsizing in the Chicago River 1915 with 844 deathsPHOTO: TOM VERDOOT / UNSPLASHother competent government partners. What we want to address is the mass rescue operation event as defined by the International MaritimeWaterborne evacuation of Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001Organization (IMO).U.S. Air crash 1549 (Miracle on the Hudson) in 2009The IMO defines rescue as the operation to retrieve persons in dis-tress, provide for their initial medical or other needs, and deliver them Caribbean Fantasy fire in Puerto Rico in 2016 FOGHORN 12'