Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has announced that it is making changes to the requirements for the carriage of emergency locator transmitters (ELTs).
As of 1 February 2009, all ELTs in Australia must operate on frequencies of 406 and 121.5 MHz. Currently, many ELTs used in Australia operate on 121.5 and 243 MHz. These will be unusable after 1 February.
The Cospas-Sarsat system will cease to process 121.5/243 MHz signals from distress beacons on 1 February. After this date, on 406 MHz beacons will be identified by the Corpas-Sarsat system.
Australian Civil Aviation Regulations 1988 currently require the carriage of an ELT on the majority of flights in Australian airspace. ELTs are distress beacons activated following an accident either automatically or manually by a pilot or other person.
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