Digibox calls for helicopter rescue!
From "Scotland on Sunday"
Save Our Set-top: TV receiver sparks £20,000 helicopter rescue
A ROGUE signal from a freeview television box was picked up at a Scottish RAF base 650 miles away, sparking a helicopter rescue mission costing tens of thousands of pounds.
The £50 set-top box in a Portsmouth suburb went haywire and sent out a signal identical to the one reserved for emergency distress beacons at sea.
A satellite detected the "mayday" call and passed it to the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCC) at RAF Kinloss, Moray, which scrambled a Coastguard helicopter based at Lee-on-the-Solent.
The aircraft spent two hours searching the waters off Portsmouth harbour for stricken sailors before experts concluded the signal was coming from dry land.
A few hours later, a Portsmouth resident received a surprise visit from telecommunications officials who took the freeview box away for investigation.
Ships, yachts and aircraft carry emergency beacons which are activated when they come into contact with water, sending a signal on a reserved frequency that identifies the vessel and its approximate location.
A spokesman for the ARCC - which helped save almost 1,300 lives last year - said they had never experienced anything like it.
He said: "If a signal is broadcast on that frequency, it is responded to. Normally the beacons are complemented with a distress call or another form of communication, but we could not take the chance.
"A Coastguard helicopter was scrambled and combed the waters, but obviously found nothing.
"We contacted Ofcom [the telecommunications regulator] and they investigated the signal, confirming that it was not a distress call from a sinking mariner or ditched aircraft, but a dodgy TV digibox."
He added: "It is almost unbelievable that this bit of equipment, the type of which is in thousands of homes, was transmitting on the distress frequency. This is a unique event for us."
Aviation experts estimate the cost of last week's search-and-rescue operation at £10,000 an hour, putting the cost of the false alarm at more than £20,000.
A spokesman for Ofcom confirmed that one of their experts had pinpointed the signal to a home in Portsmouth. "It was not his fault, of course, but we have taken the box away for tests," he said.
"There are clear laws on what frequency these boxes can use, and we suspect this was a malfunction.
"Although they are set-top receivers, they do give off a low-level signal that can be picked up by other receiving equipment.
"But this is the first time we have had a digibox call up the emergency services though."
A Marine and Coastguard Agency spokesman said that the Bristow Sikorsky S61N helicopter used in the rescue mission was equipped with tracking devices that can home in on the signal.
"Once we realised that it was on land and in an urban area, we contacted Ofcom and stood the helicopter down," he said.
The frequency is due to change in February 2009 to comply with international law.
The ARCC handles nearly 2,000 rescues and emergencies in a year, including the Boscastle drama in Cornwall where 154 lives were saved by the rescue service.
Last year 1,295 people were airlifted to safety by aircraft controlled by staff at the centre, many of whom are ex-pilots and navigators.
The ARCC can call on eight squadrons of RAF and Navy helicopters, scores of Coastguard helicopters at a dozen bases around the UK coastline, and a fleet on RAF Nimrod search-and-rescue aircraft based at Kinloss.
Sqdn Ldr Nielson, 51, controller of the ARCC, said: "This is a busy section of the RAF, there is always something going on.
"In one 24-hour day we have handled 37 jobs, ranging from transporting premature babies to hospital, rescues at sea and airlifting the trapped and injured off the UK's mountains.
"There are a million square miles under the watchful eyes of this centre, and we can pick up emergency calls and signals from thousands of miles away.
"We recently coordinated the rescue of a helicopter pilot who had crashed 9,000 miles away. To do this we need to call on aircraft from all over the UK."
Last edited by Heliport; 16th Jan 2006 at 20:44.