406 ELT registered to Ireland owner in Alaksa fatal

denverpilot

denverpilot

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"The airplane was outfitted with an Artex 406-megahertz ELT that was designed to instantly transmit a distress signal to search and rescue satellites, thereby alerting rescue personnel within minutes of the location of the crash, and specifically to whom the ELT was registered. However, the registered owner on file was a foreign government entity and the recovered ELT unit was placarded with a country code for Ireland. Title 47 CFR Part 87.199 requires that all U.S. ELTs be registered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) when an airplane or ELT changes ownership and every two years thereafter."

https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/R...D=20180513X93216&AKey=1&RType=Prelim&IType=FA

Not that it would have helped this poor soul, but please, register your 406 ELTs correctly.
 
denverpilot said:
"The airplane was outfitted with an Artex 406-megahertz ELT that was designed to instantly transmit a distress signal to search and rescue satellites, thereby alerting rescue personnel within minutes of the location of the crash, and specifically to whom the ELT was registered. However, the registered owner on file was a foreign government entity and the recovered ELT unit was placarded with a country code for Ireland. Title 47 CFR Part 87.199 requires that all U.S. ELTs be registered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) when an airplane or ELT changes ownership and every two years thereafter."

https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/R...D=20180513X93216&AKey=1&RType=Prelim&IType=FA

Not that it would have helped this poor soul, but please, register your 406 ELTs correctly.
Click to expand...

And your PLB.
 
No argument on the find time @Stewartb - just a reminder to folks to register the damn things.

We chased one here for months that some idiot thought was an avalanche beacon. His wife meant well with the Christmas present... and apparently he did the usual thing, look briefly at the orange warning sheet in the box and throw it in the trash can. Haha.
 
I've got a 406 MHz PLB. Had to do the every other 2 years thing earlier this year. No big deal. Just do it.
 
Dead men don't set off PLBs. Your family would have had a few awful days waiting for word while assets looked for a 121.5 signal, assuming they found it before it ran out of juice. An accident is bad enough. The hours and days for families waiting for word would be torture.

Alaska has lots of planes and pilots and yet we have a pretty good communication network among pilots. The weather had been awful for the week before the Valdez Short Field Contest so many decided not to go. On contest Saturday there were a few breaks and some made a dash for Valdez. I was in the shop working on my new plane and knew fairly early in the day that a plane was down near Whittier. Most of us figured it was a plane headed for Valdez and waited to hear who it was, since lots of us know each other. Shortly after noon word spread that the plane was a Cherokee, not a typical contest taildragger so likely nobody I knew. As far as the accident and the recovery, the beacon mis-registration wasn't a factor. RCC figured it out quickly. I've seen that before, when a local guy set off a 406 during installation prior to registering it. RCC called the manufacturer. The manufacturer identified the dealer, the dealer identified the customer, and the RCC called him and told him to turn the beacon off. All in about a half hour. Those guys really are good at what they do, and 406 beacons are a big part of that.

Yes, they should be registered correctly and pilot info should be kept up to date. Facilitate your best chance for a quick retrieval.
 
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