NTSB urges inspections of transmitters
Published 12:01 am Thursday, January 6, 2011
WASHINGTON — Federal safety officials investigating the Alaska plane crash that killed former Sen. Ted Stevens called for the inspection of emergency locator transmitters on planes to ensure they are properly mounted and will function after a crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s Deborah Hersman said in a letter Wednesday to Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Randy Babbitt that the transmitter aboard the plane carrying Stevens, several friends and their children last Aug. 9 failed to function after the single-engine float plane slammed into a remote southwest Alaska mountainside.
Stevens and four others were killed. Among the four survivors was former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe.
The transmitters are designed to transmit a plane’s identification and location upon impact. But the transmitter on the Stevens party’s de Havilland Dash-3T became dislodged from its mounting tray and its antenna broke off, Hersman said.
