Another ELT Story from my days as a DOC
Radio Inspector
It was a dark and stormy night many years ago when an ELT
signal was reported by a small commercial aircraft operating in southwestern BC. (This
was long before the days of SARSAT and the ELT location was very general.) The usual comms
procedures revealed no overdue aircraft and DOC was called to locate what was thought to
be just one more inadvertent ELT activation. Later that dark and stormy evening, 442
Squadron in Comox received a tasking to take a look. A Labrador crew was called and a chopper
readied for the tasking. During the preflight comms check a receiver was tuned to 121.5 MHz and a very
strong ELT was heard. As the chopper prepared for takeoff someone called, "could
you check our ELT just to make sure …" A few minutes later the Labrador crew were able to
advise that they had very quickly located the source of the inadvertent ELT!
Allister Pedersen is the Cranbrook Training Officer and
worked as a radio inspector in Vancouver chasing ELTs and EPIRBs during the 1970's.