Traditional emergency locator transmitter technology is old, the infrastructure creaky, and parts of it are going away. What’s this mean to you?

By Bob Fritz

Since 1971, when the FAA mandated the use of ELTs, they’ve been installed on approximately 170,000 aircraft. The results, frankly, have not been great. The Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) processes roughly 6000 transmissions from aircraft ELTs per year. What’s more, 400 will be shut off prior to being located, leaving the SAR team nothing to do but go home. Fewer than 100 of the approximately 6000 yearly signals are actual distress calls. But the bell rings and the rescue starts; there’s no other option. Those false alarms cost about $3.5 million in federal, state and Civil Air Patrol volunteer resources.

Initially, it was thought that the signal would be picked up by other aircraft. That turned out to be not very effective, because those aircraft overhead must have a radio tuned to 121.5 MHz and, with increasing use of flight following combined with the expense of radios, we in…

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