The type of beacon on the plane flown by Steve Fossett, the millionaire adventurer, when he disappeared last week, emits false signals 98 percent of the time, the Federal Aviation Administration has concluded.
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As a result, the FAA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will no longer monitor signals from these devices after Feb. 1, 2009, the agencies said in a memorandum issued on Friday.
The devices, known as emergency locator transmitters, or ELTs, have been standard in aircraft for decades, but the agencies have concluded that the older models are antiquated and unreliable.
The authorities have not picked up any signals from Fossett’s plane, which vanished on Sept. 3 in northern Nevada, and the search continued Monday.
After February 2009, planes with old ELTs will have to rely on their distress signals being picked up by planes flying overhead, rather than by the satellites that monitor such signals.
The FAA is urging plane owners to switch to the digital transmitters that emit a signal 20 times stronger to be spotted by satellites.