ELT & PLB Info

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — During the summer in northern Alaska, the sun is visible for 24 hours. Never-ending daylight means the region’s Inupiat Eskimos, who depend on subsistence for survival, are out hunting and gathering food at all hours. The Alaska North Slope Borough Search and Rescue (SAR) division maintains 24-hour readiness to assist those who end up in dangerous situations in an unforgiving environment.

A case in point was a rescue on July 31 when the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center was alerted around midnight to a 406 MHz distress signal from an ACR  Microfix 406 GPS Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) 12 miles southeast of Atqasuk, Alaska. With knowledge of the victim’s identity and location, the North Slope Borough SAR Department, based in Barrow, AK, immediately launched a helicopter with a medical team to the remote area.

It was a textbook rescue. With the PLB signal, we went straight to him and rendered medical care,” the pilots said. “Without the beacon, his friends probably would have driven him to the village to get aid. At 2 to 4 miles per hour, it would’ve taken them five hours to get there.”

PLBs are proving to be valuable emergency life-saving devices for outdoor activities of all kinds. Since PLBs were given FCC approval in July 2003 for sale and use in all 50 states, there have been 251 lives saved in the U.S., according to NOAA. Alaska led the states with 161 total rescues. In 2008, 68 people in 35 incidents used PLBs to signal for help in the U.S.