Very odd story, that last one.
An Air Canada passenger plane dropped 30,000 feet in order to help a yacht that was in distress.
They probably
descended 30,000 feet.
But furthermore, this guys mast broke. Problem, but not all that uncommon in off-shore sailing. Part of your emergency equipment should be stuff to cut through the mainstays and hack through the mast remains so that you can cut it all free. He apparently did so, then motored on for 12 hours while knowing full well that he would not have the fuel to reach land. But only when nearly out of fuel did he somehow raise the alarm, and for some reason the Coast Guard did not have any clue where he was.
We are discussing on here whether you should have a (possibly GPS enabled) PLB for crossing the Channel or North Sea, in addition to the ELT. For flights lasting less than an hour (sometimes even mere minutes) over water. I would have thought that having a GPS enabled PLB (or two) on board for oceanic sailing would be a given. Maybe a satphone as well. At the very least, something to rig up a backup VHF antenna.
So somehow I think there's more to the story than what's currently in the media.