Pizza In Distress

Posted by Adam Kuban, November 4, 2004 at 10:31 AM

From the New York Times:

Each year, thousands of distress signals send rescuers around the globe scrambling. More often than not, the signals lead not to an emergency, but to an unintentionally activated distress beacon on a plane, aboard a ship, or in the backpack of a mountain climber.

Now and then, though, the errant signal comes from a malfunctioning appliance. Incidents like the one in Oregon, which was first reported by The Corvallis Gazette-Times, in fact, have played a part in nudging the international search-and-rescue community away from the 121.5 frequency that, among other shortcomings, is subject to interference from electronic devices gone bad. Officials say that by 2009, when search-and-rescue agencies plan to stop monitoring the old frequency, the aim is to have all emergency beacons emit a digital signal on a new frequency of 406 megahertz. While the new system will not be immune to false alarms, its signal will be distinguishable from the electromagnetic chatter of a pizza oven.

Yes, that has happened too.

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Tags: Oddities