Old beacons recovered from dumps

Two apparent emergency searches ended at rubbish dumps at the weekend after emergency beacon owners threw their units away without removing the batteries.

The emergencies - one in Wellington and one in Queenstown - resulted in helicopter callouts.

The problems arose because people throughout the country are dumping dump 121.5 and 243-megahertz locator beacons in favour of the new 406MHz type.

Rescue operators stopped satellite monitoring of the old devices in February, but aircraft can still pick up their signals.

Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand search and rescue officer John Ashby said the two searches had taken more than 30 hours of flight time and cost more than $5000.

In the first incident, aircraft in the Wellington area reported hearing a 121.5MHz beacon. The signal was traced to the Wainuiomata landfill, where the beacon was found under a pile of rubbish.

In the second incident, a signal from another distress beacon was traced to the Queenstown dump.

Maritime New Zealand estimates that 15,000 to 20,000 of the 121.5MHz beacons had been in circulation. Unlike the newer 406MHz locators, owners of the older models were not recorded.

People getting rid of their beacons are advised either to disconnect the batteries before dumping them, or take them to an approved disposal site, such as a police station, a rescue co-ordination site or a beacon retailer.

- NZPA