9 Appendix H

  1 Is the Government party to the following Conventions:

• (i) Convention on International Civil Aviation, 1944?

• (ii) International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, 1979?

• (iii) International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974, as amended?

• (iv) Convention on the High Seas, 1958?

• (v) United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), 1982?

  2 Has the State established an entity, which provides on a 24-hour basis, search and rescue (SAR) services within its territories to ensure that assistance is rendered to persons in distress?

• (a) If no, has the State arranged with another State or group of States to provide SAR services?

  3 Which government agencies have authority and responsibility for coordination of aeronautical SAR?

  4 Where is this authority and responsibility described (law, regulation, agreement, etc.)?

  5 Is the same agency responsible for coordinating aeronautical SAR over both land and sea?

  6 Which government agencies have authority and responsibility for coordination of maritime SAR?

  7 Where is this authority and responsibility described? (law, regulation, agreement, etc.)?

  8 Has the State established a joint RCC to coordinate aeronautical and maritime SAR operations?

  9 Does the State ensure the closest practicable coordination between the centres where separate aeronautical and maritime rescue coordination centres (RCCs) serve the same area?

  10 Has the State ensured the closest practicable coordination between the relevant aeronautical and maritime authorities to provide for the most effective and efficient SAR services?

  11 Does the State have a national SAR Plan, which describes the roles of all government and non-government organizations which have resources that can support SAR?

  12 Have there been any problems encountered when working with RCCs outside your region?

 If so, have steps been taken to solve these problems?

  13 Have ICAO and IMO been provided with up-to-date information on your RCCs, RSCs, SAR resources and areas of responsibility?

  14.(i) Does your State have both aeronautical and maritime SAR regions (SRRs) or SAR subregions (SRSs) established?

  14.(ii) Do the geographical limits of your State’s aeronautical and maritime SRRs or SRSs coincide?

  14.(iii) If your State has an aeronautical Flight Information Region (FIR), does your aeronautical SRR have the same limits?

  15 Have the aeronautical SRR or SRS limits been formally agreed to by neighbouring countries or jurisdictions?

  16 Have the maritime SRR or SRS limits been formally agreed to by neighbouring countries or jurisdictions?

  17 Are there any gaps, overlaps, or size or shape problems with national SRRs or SRSs?

  18 Has the State established a RCC in each search and rescue region (SRR)?

  19 Do your RCCs regularly work with other RCCs outside your region?

  20 Do provisions exist to keep maritime SAR authorities informed of aeronautical distress situations, and to coordinate SAR responsibility to them when an aircraft has an actual or potential ditching at sea?

  21 Has the State made arrangements for the use of SAR units and other available facilities to assist any aircraft or vessels or their occupants that are, or appear to be, in a state of emergency?

  22 Are RCC(s) or RSC(s) assigned to perform other tasks which might detract from their ability to handle SAR responsibilities?

  23 Are emergency plans and recovery resources in place at all airports located near water for rescue of survivors in the water?

  24 Do facilities that serve as alerting posts for receiving aeronautical and maritime distress information operate on a 24-hour basis?

  25 Does each RCC and RSC have full information about the capabilities (range, number of persons they could rescue, alert status, launch authority point of contact, etc.) for all the primary rescue units in their area of responsibility?

  26 Does each RCC or RSC have an operations manual which provides procedures and guidance material for handling all foreseeable SAR situations?

  27 Do your RCC(s) and RSC(s) use international systems that assist SAR, e.g., AMVER, Cospas-Sarsat, computer assisted search planning?

  28 Can your RCC(s) monitor progress of a SAR response and adjust search planning if necessary?

  29 Can the RCC(s) or RSC(s) order the deployment of all primary SAR units?

• (a) If not, does the coordination for use of SAR resources take place in a timely manner?

  30 To what extent have voluntary SAR resources, including privately-owned aircraft and boats, fishing vessels, industry-owned helicopters and boats and professional organizations been organized?

  31 Do the RCCs and RSCs operation manuals include guidance on use of voluntary SAR resources?

  32 Do SAR units in your State have special equipment for medical evacuations?

  33 Has the State ensured that each RCC and RSC has a sufficient workforce skilled in SAR coordination and operational functions?

  34 Have written job descriptions been developed for all staff?

  35 Has the State ensured that each RCC and, if appropriate, RSC established a training policy and programme for its staff?

  36 Is each RCC or RSC staff fully trained to do the following:

• (i) Recognize the stages and phases of a SAR mission?

• (ii) Determine search datum, search areas, and probability of success?

• (iii) Account for aerospace and ocean drift?

• (iv) Develop search action plans and rescue action plans?

• (v) Allocate resources?

• (vi) Arrange air escorts, ships and other assistance for aircraft situations involving potential ditching?

• (vii) Carry out international SAR obligations?

  37 Does the State provide for regular training of its SAR personnel and arrange appropriate SAR exercises?

  38 Do crews of primary rescue units participate in regular SAR-related training or exercises?

  39 Is there a formal planning and evaluation process for these exercises?

  40 Do your RCCs or RSCs carry out exercises involving other RCCs and RSCs and rescue units on a regular basis?

  41 Does each element in the SAR organization regularly evaluate its staff training status and take steps to correct all identified training needs?

  42 Are training records or files maintained for the RCC staff?

  43 Are complete records (sufficient to reconstruct the incident) maintained of all SAR events?

  44 Are SAR case records used to analyse and improve the SAR system?

  45 Do SAR case records satisfy legal requirements?

  46 Are there rapid, reliable means for communications between RCCs and between RCCs and RSCs?

  47 Does your national landline communications system provide full coverage of your State and rapid, reliable service?

  48 Do your RCC(s) and RSC(s) have reliable radio communications capabilities covering their entire area(s) of responsibility for working with ships, aircraft and SAR units?

  49 Do your RCC(s) or RSC(s) use satellite communications?

  50 Do the RCC(s) have continuous and capable English language capabilities?

  51 Are RCC personnel involved in the conduct of radiotelephony communications proficient in the use of the English language?

  52 Which categories of aircraft and ships registered in your State are required to carry 121.5 MHz radio distress beacons, 406 MHz beacons, or EPIRBs?

  53 Are 406 MHz beacon registrations maintained in a database?

  54 Is the database maintained for ELT, EPIRB and PLB 406 MHz distress beacons?

  55 Is that database available on a 24-hour basis to SAR authorities?

  56 Has the State designated an H24 SAR point of contact (SPOC) for the receipt of Cospas-Sarsat distress data?

  57 Has the State made arrangements for further distribution from the SPOC to the proper authorities of the ELT, EPIRB and personal locator beacon (PLB) distress beacon alerts?

  58 Is the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network (AFTN) or Aeronautical Fixed Network (AFN) co-located or readily accessible to your RCC(s) and RSC(s)?

  59 Is your State implementing the provisions of the IMO Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS)?

  60 Do the RCC and RSC operations manuals include procedures for establishing communications with civil ships and aircraft?

  61 Do ships and aircraft that are used for SAR have communications and electronic direction-finding capabilities covering all frequencies likely to be used?

  62 Do ships and aircraft that are used for SAR have accurate navigation systems?

  63 What means are most often used to notify your RCC(s) or RSC(s) of a distress?

  64 What means are used to alert and inform rescue units of a distress, and to direct them?

  65 Do all SAR units have mutually compatible communications?

  66 Is your State planning to change communications or direction-finding capabilities in any of the following areas?

• (i) Medium frequency (MF)

• (ii) High frequency (HF)

• (iii) VHF-FM

• (iv) VHF-AM

• (v) UHF

• (vi) Telephone

• (vii) Telex

• (viii) Satellite communications

  67 Do your RCC(s) and RSC(s) have procedures for providing timely and competent medical assistance and advice to ships?

  68 Which national agencies or organizations are responsible for:

• (i) Aircraft registration and safety?

• (ii) Air traffic safety?

• (iii) Investigation of aviation accidents and incidents?

• (iv) Maritime vessel registration and safety?

• (v) Investigation of maritime accidents and incidents?

• (vi) Regulation and enforcement of radio frequency usage?

• (vii) Serving as the national SAR point of contact for receipt of Cospas-Sarsat alert data?

• (viii) Personal Locator Beacon usage?

• (ix) SAR on the ground?

• (x) Managing national civil emergencies?

• (xi) National defense?

• (xii) Providing paid SAR resources?

• (xiii) Providing volunteer SAR resources?

• (xiv) State law enforcement?

• (xv) Emergency medical advice and care?

• (xvi) Medical evacuations?

• (xvii) Supporting participation by ships in ship reporting systems, such as the Automated Mutual-assistance Vessel Rescue (AMVER) system?

  69 Is there a formal national SAR Coordinating Committee to coordinate the actions of the organizations indicated in answers to question 70?

  70 Has the State designated as SAR units elements of public or private services suitably located and equipped for SAR operations?

  71 Does the State coordinate its SAR organization with those of neighbouring States?

  72 Has each RCC in the State prepared detailed plans of operation for the conduct of SAR operations within its SRR?

  73 Does your State have formal SAR agreements for inter-agency coordination and for co-operation with neighbouring countries?

  74 Do the RCC(s) and RSC(s) coordinate with hospitals to receive all personnel evacuated due to medical emergencies?

  75 Have formal procedures been developed for providing medical assistance and advice and for making medical evacuation decisions?

  76 Does your State maintain a statistical database on SAR events?

  77 Does the State permit, subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by its own authorities, entry into its territory of SAR units of other States for the purpose of searching for, and the rescue of, survivors of aviation and maritime incidents and accidents?

  78 Does the State authorize its RCCs to provide, when requested, assistance to other RCCs, including assistance in the form of aircraft, vessels, or equipment?

  79 Has the State arranged for all aircraft, vessels and local services and facilities which do not form part of the SAR organization to co-operate fully with the latter in SAR and to extend any possible assistance to the survivors of aviation and maritime accidents?

  80 Does your State send delegates to participate directly in meetings of IMO and ICAO that deal with SAR issues?

  81 How do your SAR managers stay informed on decisions, and outcomes of meetings conducted by ICAO and IMO?”