I spent a few hours yesterday listening to scanner radios, following along as rescuers dealt with blowing snow and temperatures of 16F trying to locate a small plane that crashed not far from where I live.
At one point the Coast Guard broadcast lat and long for an emergency beacon signal their Falcon jet and helos had picked up. That set of coordinates appeared to point to a location on the eastern shore of Cape Cod, in the town of Orleans. Then they said it may have come from an area near two golf courses in the town of Brewster, about in the middle of the peninsula.
One radio transmission from a firefighter, expressing frustration after an hour of fruitless searching in heavy woods, said that the Coast Guard was using "a different coordinate system" than the land-based operations. The crash site was finally found miles away, in Cape Cod Bay on the north coast of the peninsula, when a passer-by reported seeing what he thought was clothing floating in the water. Does this mean a datum conversion could have helped find the victims sooner?
It's not clear that the two men who died survived the initial impact, but wouldn't it be sad if in a future event like this a simple lat long conversion snafu prevented a timely rescue?
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Plane crash search hampered by datums?
Posted - 16 janv. 2012 : 15:43:55
