Mission Report
Mission #02M2460A
October 12, 2002
Omaha Area ELT
Submitted by Russ Smith, Incident Commander

Iowa Wing air crews and ground teams were activated for an ELT mission Saturday, October 12^th, in far western Iowa.  Incident Commander Col. Russ Smith received a call from ARFCC at 11:45 a.m. notifying him of the need for the assistance of the Iowa Wing.  LTC Ralph Tomlinson, 1Lt Kim Kirschman, and 2LT Justin Pedersen were the aircrew in CF1376, flying out of the Ames airport.  Captain Doug Jansen, along with Lt.’s Anita and Roger Elliott and cadet Jackie Elliott, made up the ground team in IACAP 611.

Upon arrival in the Omaha area, the aircrew received a signal on 243 MHz, the military ELT frequency.  Working with the Omaha approach controllers and the tower controllers at Offutt AFB, standard DF procedures were were used to narrow the search area and finally determine the ELT was located on the ramp area of Offutt.  During the search, in addition to the simultaneous communications with two air traffic control facilities, radio contact was maintained with IACAP 611 and three different Nebraska units.  Drawing on his Air Force experience, LTC Tomlinson engaged in lengthy negotiations with Offutt personnel, finally securing permission to land at the base.  The 11,000 ft. runway eliminated most concern about runway length.  After landing, and another long delay, a base security unit directed CF 1376 first to a fueling location and then to the ramp area where several RC135 aircraft were parked.  At that time a Nebraska ground unit arrived, so CF 1376 departed.  The Nebraska unit eventually located the offending ELT in an RC135 undergoing maintenance.

Thanks to all who participated.