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SWITCH TO 406

SWITCH TO 406

The Switch to 406 MHz ELT technology has sparked debates and has raised many questions. The following are letters to the editor published in The Chronicle Herald, and reproduced with permission. The opinions expressed herewith do not necessarily reflect those of the National Search and Rescue Secretariat, its partners, and the Government of Canada.

• Old technology in new package: Private pilots fear legislation will cost lives,
  By Don Ledger
• The switch to 406: Let’s get the right signals,
  By Carole Smith

Old technology in new package: Private pilots fear legislation will cost lives

By Don Ledger

World famous balloonist and private pilot Steve Fossett’s wrecked plane was found recently in the Inyo Mountain region of California. Fossett took off from Yerington, Nev., on Sept. 3, 2007. He vanished, sparking a world media response and one of the largest airborne hunts in the history of general aviation. On Oct. 2 of this year, the wreck was discovered by a hiker 200 miles south of the search area. The plane was equipped with the newest model 406 Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT). It was destroyed in the crash; otherwise, Fossett would likely have been located in hours.

On Aug. 3, 2008, an aircraft carrying seven crashed in British Columbia shortly after taking off. It and the ELT were destroyed by fire. Five perished. A survivor text-messaged a friend, who passed the information along to Search and Rescue (SAR). It took four critical hours.

In two other recent crashes in Canada, the ELT did not activate.

Fast response times are imperative. When survivors need immediate medical attention or might perish due to weather, what good is a piece of equipment that does not signal the location of the crash?

Is there a better way? Yes, but 406 ELT technology is being federally legislated by Transport Canada despite private pilot concerns.

Private pilots in Canada relied upon ELTs to pinpoint their crash locations – activating automatically, using an internal G-switch. A signal is relayed via satellite, identifying the general area of the crash to a Rescue Co-ordination Centre (RCC). SAR aircraft then “home in” on the signal to locate the crash site. Though simple in theory, ELTs did not activate in more than 50 per cent of crashes. Contrarily, they often activated due to a hard landing. Inadvertent triggerings became common.

Pilots put up with ELT expense and upkeep because they were “the only game in town.”

ELTs are failure-prone in many ways. If the aircraft crashes into water, the signal is lost. If the aircraft impacted in an inverted position, the top-mounted antenna could be destroyed, buried in the ground or blocked by the plane’s metal fuselage, deep ravines or mountain valleys; the Earth’s curvature past 70 degrees north latitude prevents the satellite from receiving the signal.

Wreck sites are located using trained military or civilian spotters in airplanes. But they have to know where to look first. Sometimes the plane, pilot and passengers are never found.

Despite good arguments against, Transport Canada decided to support only 406 ELT technology. The Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) – the largest association of private pilots in Canada, representing about 18,000 of some 35,000 to 40,000 such pilots – has been fighting this implementation for years. Transport Canada agreed to step back some years ago, but changed its mind recently due to the refusal of the Canadian air force to support anything but 406 ELTs. Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon refused to meet with Kevin Psutka, COPA president and CEO.

The new ELTs are expensive, and will cost some pilots the loss of their airplanes. But the real cost will be lives lost due to the failure of this old technology. ELTs will fail as they did before. Pilots and passengers will be left, perhaps injured or dead, and they will not be found. Some of the stories of what occurs when this has happened are heart-rending. Families and loved ones will have no closure.

The new 406 ELT technology is not supported by the American Owners and Pilots Association and some 600,000 private pilots in the U.S. It will not be enforced by the Federal Aviation Agency.

There is OnStar-type technology called SPOT available now for use in airplanes. It tracks a GPS unit in the aircraft and updates the location of the plane every 10 minutes, right down to one-third of a square metre. If the GPS is destroyed, its last known position is recorded by the satellite and transmitted to the user’s home computer or some other responsible agency, including SPOT itself. Search and Rescue flies to that last known position; the old ELT – if needed – can then be used to locate the wreck and hopefully survivors.

Perhaps the most egregious parts of this legislation are the specifications that mean alternate technology must meet requirements that even Transport Canada’s proposed 406 ELT cannot meet.

There will come a day when the families of lost pilots or passengers will discover there was a better way to find downed airplanes, that this was a survivable accident but the survivors perished over time due to weather or injuries and a non-functioning ELT. Transport Canada and the government of Canada will be on the hook for a large lawsuit, with many more to follow. And in aviation, the cash awards are always large.

Thirty years ago in the United States, a Cessna crashed upon take-off in Florida due to a faulty seat rail. The pilot, a doctor, perished in the crash, after his seat slid back during the take-off. The family sued Cessna Aircraft and won a $25-million settlement – for a faulty seat rail.

That can and will happen in Canada. Transport Canada needs to halt this legislation.

Don Ledger is a writer, private pilot and former Zone Commander for Halifax District Civil Air Search and Rescue.

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The switch to 406: Let’s get the right signals

By Carole Smith

An Oct. 23 opinion piece by Don Ledger, decrying the proposed legislation of 406 MHz Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs) for aircraft, demands a response to ensure the Canadian public has a more balanced and objective view of this issue.

ELTs transmitting on 121.5 and 243 MHz were first developed in the 1950s to help locate military aircraft, and were later mandated for civilian use. In the early 1980s, satellite technology was harnessed to detect and locate these ELT signals, automatically relaying them to authorities even before an aircraft may have been reported overdue. By the mid-1990s, the humanitarian COSPAS-SARSAT satellite system was providing search and rescue alerting to over half a million aviation, maritime and land-based users around the globe. ELT technology had also advanced, with more accurate and reliable digital models operating on 406 MHz.

Different beacon types.

Recognizing the lifesaving advantages of this new technology, the International Civil Aviation Organization, among others, urged COSPAS-SARSAT to invest fully in the 406 MHz system. In October 2000, a decision was made to end satellite surveillance of 121.5 and 243 MHz signals on Feb. 1, 2009.

Are 406 MHz ELTs simply “old technology in a new package,” as Mr. Ledger asserts? No. Their digital signals are 50 times stronger than the old analog ELTs. They work with the geostationary satellites that detect alerts almost immediately, as well as the low Earth-orbiting satellites that cross over the poles and compensate for terrain effects. Mr. Ledger’s concern about limited coverage north of 70 degrees is therefore unfounded. And, unlike the anonymous 121.5 MHz ELTs, a properly registered 406 MHz ELT is matched to a specific aircraft, allowing a distress alert to be investigated even while the aircraft’s final position is calculated.

Do ELTs save lives? Yes. Ask the family of Kate Williams. This three-year-old toddler was the only survivor of a plane crash that killed her grandfather and his business partner near Golden, B.C., in October 2007. When the aircraft crashed into a mountain stream soon after take-off, the ELT activated automatically, alerting the search and rescue system and guiding rescuers to the snowy crash site just before nightfall.

Do ELTs work 100 per cent of the time? No, but neither do smoke detectors, airbags, seatbelts or any other safety device. According to the U.S.-based Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, 406 MHz ELTs activate 81 to 83 per cent of the time, a considerable improvement over the 25 to 73 per cent activation rates of earlier generations. As Mr. Ledger mentions, some promising alternative technologies are emerging, but to date, no single unit is designed specifically for aviation use, has an automatic crash sensor, and is capable of providing an initial location within five kilometres. Nothing, however, is stopping pilots from utilizing these alternatives as a backup.

Are 406 MHz ELTs accessible only to the rich? A compact 406 MHz ELT for a general aviation airplane costs around $1,000, plus up to seven to 10 hours of labour to install if the airplane isn’t already wired for a cockpit switch. While pricier than the older ELTs, expenditures in this range shouldn’t be unfamiliar to aircraft owners. And, unlike the alternatives being marketed, there are no annual subscription fees for COSPAS-SARSAT service.

Mr. Ledger also makes a surprising claim that U.S. adventurer Steve Fossett was flying an aircraft equipped with a 406 MHz ELT. The investigation is ongoing, but preliminary information indicates that no 406 MHz ELT was on board, nor is there any record of one being registered to the plane.

Is Transport Canada wrong to mandate today’s best available search and rescue alerting technology? If Canada’s 24,000- plus civil aviation aircraft are not upgraded with 406 MHz ELTs, search and rescue alerting will effectively return to the pre-1980s era, once satellite processing of 121.5 and 243 MHz comes to an end next February.

Here’s a suggestion for aircraft owners and pilots: Don’t be satisfied with a single source of information on this important issue. Do your own research, including informing yourself about 406 MHz technology by visiting websites like COSPAS-SARSAT (www.cospas-sarsat.org) and the National Search and Rescue Secretariat (www.nss.gc.ca). Above all, please think very carefully before you turn your fellow aviators – and their passengers, friends and families – against this lifesaving technology.

Carole Smith is the “Switch to 406” project co-ordinator with the National Search and Rescue Secretariat. She’s also a private pilot, and a former unit director/zone commander with the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association in Ontario.

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