RECOGNIZING the recent proliferation of non-406 MHz locating,
tracking and emergency notification devices, and
CONSIDERING the challenges these devices present to SAR
services, ICAO and IMO wish to provide the following information to
IMO Member Governments and ICAO Contracting States.
These commercially available locating, tracking and emergency
notification devices are not compliant with internationally accepted
performance standards and operational criteria for global distress
alerting and therefore may be ineffective in emergency situations.
The following information may be made available to providers,
usersfootnote and potential users of emergency
notification devices by ICAO Contracting States and IMO Member Governments,
and may be included in State public relations campaigns on the subject.
1 Users subject to IMO/ICAO regulations carry
as a minimum a 406 MHz distress beacon that is compatible with the
established international Cospas-Sarsat system and compliant with
ICAO and IMO provisions.
2 Non-regulated users may, as a matter of choice
and in lieu of a 406 MHz distress beacon, carry emergency notification
devices. These devices, and the services offered in conjunction with
them, should meet performance standards and operational criteria equivalent
to 406 MHz beacons if they are expected to provide equivalent functionality.
3 If an emergency notification device or service
falls short of these performance standards and operational criteria,
transparency would require that the limitations are clearly indicated
to the user by the manufacturer. These limitations may include, but
not be limited to reduced, diminished or lack of:
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.1 global coverage;
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.2 timeliness of alert to the responsible SAR
authority;
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.3 location accuracy and homing signal;
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.4 automatic activation and survivability in the
aeronautical and maritime environments; and
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.5 distressed user identifier capability.
4 In order to ensure seamless, timely and effective
alert notification to the responsible SAR authorityfootnote, States may require providers of non-406
MHz emergency notification devices and services to:
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.1 establish and maintain a user database that
can be correlated with the transmitted data;
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.2 establish and maintain reliable contacts with
relevant SAR authorities;
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.3 agree to procedures and protocols with the
State concerned, including but not limited to test procedures, provision
of SAR and user data on demand, acceptable information format and
efficient resolution of false alerts;
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.4 demonstrate that they can alert the relevant
SAR authorities 24/7/365 within 5 minutes of a confirmed distress
situation, with positive confirmation of receipt by the responsible
SAR authority; and
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.5 demonstrate that they have robust processes
and effective procedures for distribution of alert notifications.
This would appropriately include training processes and backup systems
to ensure resilience.
5 In order to give users a clear indication of
actual effectiveness in emergency situations in specific areas, States
may require providers of non-406 MHz emergency notification devices
and services to provide potential users with a list of those States
with which systemized arrangements have been made and in whose territories
claims of coverage have been made.