NTSB Urges New Aircraft Locator Beacons

Air Safety Week, Sept 17, 2007

The unsuccessful search for adventurer Steve Fossett's missing single- engine Bellanca Super Decathlon has prompted the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to urge mandatory use of new digital emergency locator transmitters (EMTs) for general aviation.

The search in the Nevada desert for his aircraft missing since Sept. 3 has been hindered by the fact that the fame aviator's plane was equipped with an older, less reliable emergency beacon that emits a weak signal. Federal legislation mandates the newer emergency locator transmitters on boats, but general aviation aircraft can continue to use the lower performing locator beacons.

The Safety Board sent a safety recommendation on Sept. 4, asking the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to urge the U.S. Congress to change the law "at the earliest possible opportunity."

Complicating the intensive search operation is the fact that Fossett did not file a flight plan when he departed a private airstrip about 80 miles southeast of Reno, Nev. The search grid covers desolate areas about the size of Massachusetts, featuring mountains, canyons and scrub brush-covered desert.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operates the satellites that monitor the emergency beacons. Owners of aircraft and boats with the new transmitters are required to register with the U.S. government. The newer beacons, which transmit on a frequency of 406 megahertz, send out highly reliable digital signals that identify the registered aircraft.

The new transmitters allow the satellites to pinpoint the search area while the older units identify a search area spanning several hundred square miles. The older beacons are also plagued by false alarms and failure. And other electronics to emit radio signals on the same frequency, causing false leads.

To make matters worse, after Feb. 1, 2009, the International Cospas- SARSAT (Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking) satellite system will cease to monitor analog emergency locator transmitter frequencies 121.5 and 243 megahertz.

In 1970, the U.S. Congress mandated the installation of EMTs in most general aviation airplanes by the end of 1973. The NTSB notes that in March 2003 the search for survivors of a small plane crash in Massachusetts was delayed 17 hours because the craft was equipped with an older analog EMT.

The NTSB says the newer EMTs decrease false alerts, provide registration information and emit a "significantly stronger, more stable signal, offering a much more accurate crash location." While the older EMT is accurate to within 12-15 nautical miles, the digital models are accurate within one to three nautical miles. This equates to search areas of 707 square nautical miles and 28 square nautical miles, respectively.

The FAA previously told the Safety Board that it must comply with the existing federal legislation that allows for use of both analog and digital ELTs.

The NTSB estimates that lower-performing ELTs are installed on 180,000 US-registered general aviation aircraft with no requirement to upgrade to a 406 MHz ELT when the satellite service is terminated in February 2009. "Absent a requirement, the Board is concerned that most general aviation users will not opt to install 406 MHz ELTs, thus causing a dangerous situation where beginning Feb. 1, 2009, 121.5 MHz will only be detected by ground-based receivers or by over-flying aircraft." Rescuers would have to revert to older search and rescue methods, "greatly decreasing the likelihood of finding downed aircraft in a timely manner," the Safety Board added.

The NTSB urges the FAA to seek legislation that requires installation of digital ELTs in all applicable GA aircraft at the earliest possible opportunity. The Safety Board also said the FAA should "strongly consider establishing a compliance date for upgrading to 406 MHz ELTs on or before the date that COSPAS- SARSAT will cease satellite processing of 121.5 MHz signals."

Meanwhile, Fossett's single-engine airplane carried food and water for two weeks, and rescuers hope the explorer, who has set numerous land and aviation records, is using his long-proven survival skills to stay alive until his aircraft is found.

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