Could mine deaths be mitigated by use of ELTs?
Thursday, April 8, 2010 at 21:38 Get enough aviation types together in one room talking about a mining disaster - as in my house last night - and you’d think ELTs ( Emergency Locator Transmitters) would come up more often.
Civil Air Patrol members use a manual ELT direction locator to find an ELT distress beacon.
ELTs are the first thing everybody is asking about after an airliner disappears in hundreds of feet of ocean. I can assure you that SAR crews are intently listening for that distinctive sound during search and rescue operations.
We wouldn’t think of flying without an ELT.
During this most recent mining tragedy in West Virginia, it’s been clear that rescuers are not sure where survivors could be hunkered down - in a number of underground safe chambers.
Underground to surface radio communications should be the first line of defense, but due to the infrastructure that might be required to install it - and then move it as the mining operations and the shelters move - may be unworkable.
I don’t know.
But, ELT’s have been found pinging away well beneath the surface of water.
SARSAT/COSPAS satellites pickup emergency signals from lost seaman or divers via highly portable - and affordable- EPIRBs or PLBs on the old 121.5 and newer 406 mhz frequencies.
Ground Penetrating Radar and various types of sonar help scientists understand buried rock formations below.
Why can’t these - or something similar - be turned into a type of “Help! I’m here!” signalling device for trapped miners?
It seems to me that technology has be failing those in the mines.
Money might be a reason why.
