Archive for March 24th, 2009
Advantages of the NEW 406 Mhz ELT compared to the OLD 121.5 MHZ ELT
Different types of ELTs are currently in use. There are approximately 170,000 of the older generation 121.5 MHz ELTs in service. Unfortunately, these have proven to be highly ineffective. They have a 97% false alarm rate, activate properly in only 12% of crashes, and provide no identification data. In order to fix this problem 406 MHz ELTs were developed to work specifically with the Cospas-Sarsat system. These ELTs dramatically reduce the false alert impact on SAR resources, have a higher accident survivability success rate, and decrease the time required to reach accident victims by an average of 6 hours.
With a 121.5/243 MHz beacon, only 1 alert out of every 500 alerts is a genuine distress situation. This has a significant effect on the resources of search and rescue (SAR) services. With 406 MHz beacons, false alerts have been considerably reduced (1 alert in 12 is genuine) and when properly registered can normally be resolved with a telephone call to the beacon owner using the encoded beacon identification. Consequently, real alerts can receive the attention they deserve.
The best way to ensure your safety (and the safety of those travelling with you), if an emergancy occurs while flying and aircraft, is to have a NEW 406 MHz Emergency Locator Transmitter. The advantages are tremendous when compared to the old 121.5 MHz ELTs.