ELT Search February 22, 1998

Location: Fort Lewis, WA

Personnel: Jeff Sharp OL, Rob Lutz, Ed Hrivnak, Jim Andrues, Connie and Larry Crum

Jeff Sharp was contacted by Tom Jensen, WASAR, at 1530 hours. Tom asked if TMRU would find an ELT that was in the vicinity of Gray Field on Fort Lewis. The ELT had been transmitting for approximately 20 hours. Fort Lewis personnel were able to hear the ELT on their radios but were unable to locate the source of the signal. No aircraft were reported overdue or unaccounted for.

Rob Lutz met Jeff at the Cache at 1600 hours. They picked up the direction finders and proceeded to Fort Lewis. Sgt. Sandorf was the contact at base operations, on Gray Field. We contacted the Joint Rescue Coordination Center, Headquarters Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, Virginia for the latest SARSAT fix. The SARSAT location was approximately one mile east of the south end of runway 33

A strong signal was heard at the base of the control tower. There were no reflections and the DF mode indicated the ELT was to the east. The first DF plotted toward the base flying club ramp. A ramp check was performed by Jeff of all of the aircraft. No aircraft on the ramp were transmitting. While Jeff was performing the ramp check, Rob was gathering additional DF data. From the ramp two DFs were noted. One was to the east and another was to the southeast.

A check of the Seattle sectional aeronautical chart showed that Spanaway airport was along the DF plot. Ed Hrivnak was asked to check the Spanaway airport. No aircraft were transmitting at Spanaway.

Jeff and Rob began to isolate the ELT to an area east of the airfield that was made up of barracks and other support facilities. A combination of DF and build/fade techniques were used. They found that the DF mode indicated numerous reflections around the buildings. The build/fade method proved the most efficient method. A pattern of driving around the block in a tighter and tighter pattern isolated the signal to a building occupied by the 54^th MAST unit. Jeff spotted a logo through one of the windows as they drove by. They thought this might be a good building to investigate further since it was related to an aircraft unit.

Rob found 4 MAST crew members about to go into the building and told of our quest. They allowed us to search the building. The ELT was located in a supply room. It was activated the previous day accidentally while personnel were working in the room. The ELT was secured at 2000 hours. (Mission report submitted by Jeff Sharp. Editor)

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