Crab,
Thanks for your reply.
For those who wonder what the relevance is, my understanding (and if anyone knows better, please chip in):
If, for reasons best known to myself, I decide to throw several tons of helicopter into the water in the East Shetland basin on a foggy day, and scatter my passengers with dumb beacons across several acres, a Civvy SAR machine will turn up and locate us one by one and take us home for tea.
If I choose to repeat the experiment a couple of hundred miles South, a military machine will appear and, despite the availability of rear-facing radar and NVGs, will be unable to find any of us due to the inability to discriminate between multiple transmissions.
The AAIB are hinting that they think this might not be a good idea:
It is recommended that the Civil Aviation Authority review the carriage and use in commercial air transport helicopters of any radio location devices which do not form part of the aircraft’s certificated equipment.
(AAIB Special report into G-REDU)
UK Oil and Gas, however think that:
There is no need for the CAA to conduct a further review of this matter
(press release 26th June)
TD