Alerting service
What alerting service is
Alerting service raises the alarm, and search and rescue answers it. ATS units provide the first, rescue coordination centres the second.
A service provided to notify appropriate organisations regarding aircraft in need of search and rescue aid, and to assist such organisations as required. One of the four air traffic services in ATM 001.
Provided by ATS unitsHas an ICAO annex of its own, Annex 12, and is provided 24 hours a day. A rescue coordination centre organises the search and rescue services, and coordinates search and rescue operations, within its search and rescue region. Every region has one.
Coordinated by an RCCSearch and rescue at sea.
Search and rescue for aircraft.
Both, from one centre. Denmark’s is JRCC Denmark, at Karup.
Who is given it, and who gives it
Alerting service is provided by ATS units, to three groups of aircraft. Two of them always; the middle one only as far as it can be.
The same three in ICAO Annex 11 5.1.1, SERA.10001 and Part-ATS, ATS.TR.400.
Every ATS unit is responsible for alerting service while it is open.
When an aerodrome unit closes, its zone is no longer active. Flight information and alerting service then come from København FIS, callsign COPENHAGEN INFORMATION, open H24.
A unit open H24 has no outside hours. Two exceptions: Bornholm lies in the Sweden FIR, served from Malmö, and Vágar is covered by Reykjavík.
The three phases
An emergency is split into three phases, each with a code word of its own. Each is more serious than the one before, and a situation can start at any of them.
Uncertainty exists as to the safety of an aircraft and its occupants.
Declared when either- No communication for 30 minutes after one was due, or after the first failed attempt to make contact, whichever comes first
- Not arrived 30 minutes after its latest estimated time of arrival
Not declared when there is no doubt about the safety of the aircraft and its occupants.
Apprehension exists as to the safety of an aircraft and its occupants.
Declared when any- After the uncertainty phase, attempts to make contact and inquiries elsewhere have brought no news
- Cleared to land, and not landed within 5 minutes of the estimated time of landing, with contact not re-established
- Its operating efficiency is impaired, but not so that a forced landing is likely
- It is known or believed to be the subject of unlawful interference
- EU only: at an AFIS aerodrome, in circumstances the competent authority prescribes
Most things start off as an alert, the course says. Only the first trigger needs the phase before it.
Reasonable certainty that an aircraft and its occupants are threatened by grave and imminent danger, or require immediate assistance.
Declared when any- After the alert phase, further attempts to make contact and wider inquiries point to the aircraft being in distress
- The fuel on board is considered exhausted, or not enough to reach safety
- Its operating efficiency is impaired so that a forced landing is likely
- It is about to make, or has made, a forced landing
The course’s shorthand is fuel, forced landing, crash. A crash counts as a forced landing that has been made.
When an emergency happens
Who the ATS unit tells, what it needs to know, and what it does about the aircraft and the traffic around it.
- Souls on board, SOB
- Fuel amount
- Dangerous goods on board
The same number in writing: ICAO, SERA and the flight plan say persons on board, and ICAO’s abbreviation is POB.
The aircraft is plotted on a chart, or another suitable tool, to determine its probable future position and its maximum range of action from its last known position.
Other aircraft known to be in the vicinity are told the nature of the emergency, as soon as practicable.
Unlawful interference is the exception. The nature of the emergency is not mentioned on the radio unless the aircraft has mentioned it first, and it is certain that doing so will not make things worse.
Unlawful interference
Acts, or attempted acts, that jeopardise the safety of civil aviation. ICAO Annex 17 lists seven, and says the list is not complete.
The code for it is 7500, below. What may be said about it on the radio is under “Inform other aircraft”, above.
The emergency frequency and the codes
One frequency and four transponder codes.
Provides a clear channel between aircraft in distress or emergency and a ground station, when the normal channels are being used by other aircraft. The first of its six uses.
MAYDAY and PAN PAN do not have to be said three times. ICAO Annex 10 and SERA.14095 both say “preferably spoken three times”. The word itself has to be said at the start of the first call; only the repetition is optional. How both calls are made is in ATM 002.
Finding the aircraft
The emergency beacon, and ICAO’s wider distress and safety system.
Its primary purpose is to locate survivors. It can aid in recovering wreckage too.
ICAO’s system for knowing where an aircraft is in normal flight and in distress, and for finding it and its flight data afterwards. The ELT is one of its tools.
Reporting an incident
The report form for an air traffic incident.
Used to submit and report air traffic incidents. The AIP describes it, in ENR 1.14. In Denmark the commander of the aircraft reports the incident to the Accident Investigation Board, and the ATIR form comes from the board or from an ATS unit, in English only.
Mostly used by pilots. ANSPs have their own reporting systems.