An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Emergency Locator Transmitters to Reduce Response Time and Locate Wreckage in U.S. General Aviation Accidents

Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELT) help search crews to locate aircraft in distress and to rescue survivors. This study analyzed ELT data from U.S. General Aviation accidents during the period 2006 to 2010. This study examined the effectiveness of ELTs in terms of ELT Success Rate (ESR) and False Negative Rate (FNR) based on ELT-Aided. This study found a significant difference between ELT-Operated and ELT-Aided. The ESR was found to be 38.58% whereas the FNR was found to be 61.42 %. The Missing Data Ratio (MDR), where accident reports had no ELT information, was found to be above 95%. Recommendations were made to include ELT information in all accident reports and to stress the importance of including response time in the accident report. Also the significant differences between ELT-Operated and ELT-Aided were explained