Bushwalk Australia

From ABC

The careless disposal of an emergency beacon at a garbage tip has sparked an unnecessary nationally coordinated search across northern Tasmania yesterday.

The search began after a number of aircraft flying over the state's north picked up a signal from an activated beacon, known as an EPIRB.

A tracking aircraft from Victoria and the Tasmanian police rescue helicopter spent hours searching for the emergency beacon and finally tracked it to the tip at Deloraine.

Police ground crews used special equipment to find the EPIRB, which had been thrown into the rubbish and inadvertently activated.

Senior Sergeant Mike Gillies of the Northern Police Search and Rescue said a number of valuable local and national search and rescue resources were put at unnecessary risk because of the careless disposal.

He said emergency beacons must be deactivated by staff at a battery shop before they could be thrown out.

Overlandman wrote:From ABC

The careless disposal of an emergency beacon at a garbage tip has sparked an unnecessary nationally coordinated search across northern Tasmania yesterday.

The search began after a number of aircraft flying over the state's north picked up a signal from an activated beacon, known as an EPIRB.

A tracking aircraft from Victoria and the Tasmanian police rescue helicopter spent hours searching for the emergency beacon and finally tracked it to the tip at Deloraine.

Police ground crews used special equipment to find the EPIRB, which had been thrown into the rubbish and inadvertently activated.

Senior Sergeant Mike Gillies of the Northern Police Search and Rescue said a number of valuable local and national search and rescue resources were put at unnecessary risk because of the careless disposal.

He said emergency beacons must be deactivated by staff at a battery shop before they could be thrown out.

Bit confused here,they spent hours to find the signal source,does that mean it can take as long to find the location in an emergency situation ?? ....or is it just media waffle ?

If its an old one, perhaps it wasn't GPS capable meaning it could only be located by triangulation.

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What a strange thing for someone to throw in the tip.
I'm a bit confused about the "unnecessary risk" to the searchers but fully understand them being cheesed off by the massive waist of resources.

So easy to "disarm "the old beacon just remove the battery