TAREE residents may have been curious about the presence of helicopters with search lights hovering over the area on Friday, July 10 from about 8pm.
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Westpac and police search and rescue helicopters took to the air after an emergency EPIRB beacon was detected in the area.
The EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) is used to alert search and rescue services in the event of an emergency. It does this by transmitting a coded message via satellite and earth stations to the nearest rescue co-ordination centre.
Some EPIRBs also have built-in GPS which enables the rescue services to accurately locate it to within 50 metres.
EPIRBs are generally installed on boats and can either be operated automatically after an incident or manually.
The beacon was eventually located in the scrap metal section of the Taree tip, with it likely that the device had been accidentally set off when it was thrown away.
