The helicopter's twisted wreckage lay in a Louisiana bayou, its crew severely injured and unable to call for help. But a small radio beacon was automatically notifying rescuers.
Within minutes after the crash Sunday, a satellite deep in space alerted rescuers to a possible crash, identified the helicopter's owner and helped pinpoint its location, according to the Air Force.
A Coast Guard helicopter arrived at the remote site within two hours, in time to airlift the lone survivor to a hospital.
New digital distress beacons like the one on the PHI helicopter are revolutionizing rescues of boaters, hikers and pilots across the globe.
But the chopper that crashed on the way to an offshore oil rig was one of only a small minority of U.S.-registered aircraft with the new beacons.
More than 85% of private planes do not carry the improved beacons even as the government prepares to stop listening Feb. 1 for distress calls from the older, outdated beacons installed on most aircraft. The newer beacons cost roughly $2,000 to $4,000, although prices are dropping.
"It's pretty scary," says Lt. Col. Clifton Hicks, who directs Air Force rescue operations in the continental United States.
In recent interviews, ranking officials at the Air Force, Coast Guard, Civil Air Patrol and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which monitors the distress beacons from its satellites in space, urged private pilots to install new Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs) as soon as possible.
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