The Royal Flying Doctor Service's
mantle of safety over outback Australia is about to go high-tech with the
addition of emergency locator beacon homing devices on all its aircraft.
The devices, which were obtained
through a $48,000 grant from Australia's largest insurance company AMP, will
allow the aircraft to home in on radio signals from the beacons and accurately
position aircraft, ships or even vehicles in distress.
RFDS general manager Roger
Wellington said that equipping their aircraft with ELB homing devices would
greatly enhance search and rescue capability - to such an extent that the
RFDS will now become a major provider of search and rescue services in the
outback.
"We have eight aircraft on
call 24-hours-a-day at bases in Cairns, Rockhampton, Brisbane, Charleville
and Mt Isa," Mr Wellington said. "Should an RFDS aircraft locate a distress
signal, they have the potential to land on the nearest serviceable landing
area and could feasibly be the first medical personnel at the scene of an
accident."
Airservices Australia Civil
Search and Rescue Unit co-ordinator Peter Horton said that the beacon devices
have a range of about 240km but were complemented by a satellite tracking
system. Aircraft could be sent to a search area after a distress signal was
received by satellites (which passed over Australia every two hours) and
provide a search location.
All vessels operating more
than two nautical miles offshore in Australia are already required to fit
the ELBs, as are most aircraft. The units are also becoming popular with
people driving four wheel drives to remote areas.
I'm just at the end of a long
night shift in the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) in Canberra
and right beside my desk are the computers which process the satellite detections
of these beacons (luckily, the only one we've detected tonight was at Darwin
airport!).
Many 4WD-ers are now taking
beacons with them on trips and to keep the system free of false alerts we
advise that the beacon be checked regularly in case it's been jolted or in
case young Johnny has found the "on" switch. This is important because it's
not inconceivable that the police - who are responsible for land
search-and-rescue operations - could attempt to recover the costs involved
in tracking down the source of a false alert.
Some companies who have workers
such as geologists working in remote areas are also equipping them with beacons.
In many cases these are the newer (and more expensive) Personal Locater Beacon.
Their big advantage is that they have an identity encoded in the signal so
that we can identify who it belongs to and immediately ring the company contact
with the details.
- Darryl
Hinnon
