ANCHORAGE, Alaska –
The Alaska Rescue Coordination Center opened a mission in response to an emergency locator transmitter notification in the vicinity of the Municipality of Anchorage Merrill Field Airport, Jan. 11, 2025.
Lt. Col. Brian Porter, the director of operations for the Civil Air Patrol’s Alaska Wing said that a significant number of ELT notifications are “non-distress,” often because of unintentional operation of the beacon and inadequate servicing.
“Every ELT notification is treated as a real distress call until rescue personnel can confirm it is a false alert,” said Porter.
Members of the Civil Air Patrol’s Alaska Wing accepted the mission and assigned three senior members and one cadet to conduct a ground search of the area. They used direction finding equipment and employed radio direction finding techniques to locate the unregistered ELT in approximately two hours.
“Our volunteers spend a lot of time developing the techniques of direction finding, both in the air and on the ground, said Porter. “We must practice these techniques consistently to develop judgment and skills that are part science and part art in order to find and silence these beacons.”
ELTs are FAA required emergency transmitters carried aboard almost all U.S.-registered general aviation aircraft. In the event of an aircraft accident in Alaska, the ELT emits a distress signal that notifies the AKRCC which in turn requests available rescue assets.
For everyone’s safety, aircraft owners are encouraged to register their ELTs with the FAA and AKRCC. ELT registration provides the AKRCC with the aircraft owner’s emergency point-of-contact information that can be used to confirm a false alert and mitigate time spent on non-emergency tasks.
According to Porter, most false alerts are the result of ELT mishandling, hard landings, improper installation, or unfamiliarity with beacon operation. Every alert has the potential to unnecessarily put rescue personnel in harm’s way. When an aircraft or ground team is dispatched to hunt down a distress signal, these volunteers are exposed to the risks associated with operating in the austere Alaskan environment.
“Our volunteers are committed to responding to every call out, but we don’t want to ask them to accept those risks when unnecessary,” said Porter.
In the event of a real emergency, registered ELTs can lead to timely rescues by facilitating direct contact between rescue personnel and the pilot. Timely rescues are vital when medical attention is needed.
“One of the problems with unregistered ELTs is that without a direct contact, we can only get within a two nautical mile ring. If that happens at an airfield like Merrill Field Airport, you can have as many as 500 planes in that ring,” said Alaska Air National Guard Master Sgt. Jacob Inman, a senior search and rescue controller assigned to the AKRCC.
“Many times, a real distress signal can be masked by a non-distress signal going off. There can be multiple ELTs going off in one geographical area, so it’s of utmost importance that everyone who uses these beacons registers them so that we can make contact with the owners as soon as possible,” he said.
To further help prevent future false alerts, Porter emphasized the importance for aircraft owners to regularly service their beacons and to check that they are turned off when not in use, especially after landing.
AKRCC search and rescue personnel recommend that all Alaska aircraft owners register their ELTs at:
https://beaconregistration.noaa.gov.