Third search after false alarm from beacon

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33740, 13 January 1975, Page 1

Third search after false alarm from beacon

An Iroquois helicopter searched for more than two hours yesterday for an aircraft emergency beacon accidentally triggered earlier in the day.

The search, the third false alarm mounted from Christchurch in 10 days, was described afterwards as “very frustrating” by Mr A. S. Wilson, of the Civil Aviation division.

He said that a meeting would be held soon between the division, the Air Force and users of the beacons to try to find why they were going off accidentally.

The search yesterday ended, when the batteries were taken from a beacon on a private helicopter on a farm inland from Kaikoura.

The search involved members of the police, Air Force and search and rescue groups. An Iroquois was diverted from an Army exercise at Cass to help also. “We are very concerned about the recent spate of false alarms,’’ said Mr Wilson. “We do not know whether they are caused by faulty equipment or misuse.” As well as costing hundreds of dollars, the searches inconvenienced the Air Force, rescue organisations and searchers, who w’ere obliged to stand by to rush into an area at short notice, he said. "To cry, ‘wolf, wolf’, to these groups three times in

10 days is very frustrating for them and for us.”

Mr Wilson said he suspected a fault in the beacon combined with the recent hot weather might be the cause of the problem.

He would seek a meeting with the Air Force and users.

Another emergency flight by an Iroquois helicopter to try to find the source of a distress signal, located by R.N.Z.A.F. helicopters on transit from Auckland to Wigram, on Friday turned out to be a false alarm. The signal was detected near Charwell, in Marlborough. It was later discovered by the helicopter from

Wigram that a helicopter had landed safely at Charwell without turning off its emergency beacon. The crew from Wigram turned the beacon off and returned to Wigram. A spokesman for the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Christchurch said that this was the second search in a few days for an emergency beacon which had not been correctly handled by the operator. “I emphasise that while a search for one of these beacons was being carried out there was a possibility that a real emergency could inadvertently have been overlooked,’? he said.