A Michigan air navigation beacon is being turned off, part of a national shutdown

The US aviation agency plans to shut down a radio beacon that helps planes navigate near Mount Pleasant, Michigan. This is part of a larger effort to turn off older navigation systems across the country.

For decades, pilots have relied on ground-based radio beacons to navigate. These beacons transmit signals that aircraft use to determine their position and direction. The US aviation agency is now systematically turning off these older systems as air traffic increasingly relies on satellite navigation. This change means pilots will depend more on GPS and less on physical infrastructure on the ground.