PILOON
Super Star Member
------- not a peep from the multiple ELT transmitters on board the aircraft. What happened to them? They can't be turned off by the pilots.------------------
Totally incorrect. ELT transmitters are NOT required on commercial A/C much less multiple units.
The argument was that airlines fly known routes and keep schedules therefore their position is always known.
Yeah, that is certainly not the case here.
As far as I am concerned the airline industry simply did not want to retrofit due to down time and cost. Called lobbying.
General aviation was obliged to install ELT's , again and again as specs changed.
I say again etc as they discovered that the Lithium batteries liked to blow up every now and then.
Old ELT.s xmitted on 121.5 & 253 mhz and later units xmit to a sat freq. that is coded with A/C ident and can pinpoint the crash site.