An injured bushwalker was rescued after he borrowed an emergency beacon from two other trekkers in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park.
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The 74-year-old West Launceston man hurt his knee and was unable to continue his walk through the park on Wednesday morning.
While his wife tried to seek help by returning to their car, two other walkers came across the man and used their personal locator beacon to alert police.
The Westpac Rescue Helicopter was sent to the area, and police initially thought they would be rescuing the two walkers who owned the beacon, and had been in the area overnight.
But the pair had left their beacon with the injured man and continued their walk.
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The man was airlifted back to his car just after midday Wednesday.
Inspector Darren Hopkins said it had been difficult for the rescue crew to find him due to a weak signal from the PLB.
"This is believed to be because the battery on the PLB had expired in 2017," he said.
"This is a timely reminder, especially coming into the warmer months, to check that all emergency equipment including PLBs, EPIRBS and flares are not outside of their expiry dates prior to embarking on your activity."
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