glekichi,
The only statistic that counts is the % of times an aircraft with a fixed ELT (whether 406 or not) broadcasts a useable signal after an accident.
The answer remains the same, regardless of any analysis that NZ may gave done about aerial problems, in better than 90% of occasions, no useful signal has been broadcast.
The statistics, in the US, for what they are, CAP studies, as no comprehensive database of all accidents is available, is entirely consistent with the Australian record.
Does NZ have a detailed record to refute the Australian figures?? Last time I spoke to anybody in Wellington about it, the answer was no.
At least in Australia, false activation problems have largely gone away, as there are very few fixed ELT installations remaining. One of the few would have been one ZK- aircraft at Bankstown.
I don't know what it is about the aviation industry, that leads people to hang onto preconceived positions, when all the evidence is to the contrary. There are few better examples that the issue of fixed ELT, particularly given the genesis of the "rule", a politically directed action in US, that bypassed all effectiveness and cost/benefit processes normally part of FAA rulemaking.
Tootle pip!!