December 29, 2010

Remove battery before chucking old locator beacon

This item from today's New Zealand Herald reports an unintentional consequence of throwing out an old locator beacon without first removing its battery.

The pilot of the Taupo Youthtown Rescue helicopter is urging people to take the batteries out of emergency beacons before throwing them away, following a callout that ended at the Taupo rubbish dump.
Nat Every, the helicopter's pilot and base manager was alerted by the rescue coordination centre this morning of a emergency locating beacon activated that was heard as far away the Kapiti Coast by an aircraft at 16,000ft.
"After a brief airborne search followed by a ground search a ELT beacon was found at the Taupo landfill under about a foot of rubbish," Mr Avery said.

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