Australia’s Maritime Safety Authority

With its head office in Canberra and other offices in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle, AMSA comprises four divisions: • The Maritime Standards Division provides strategic advice and operational oversight of maritime safety matters and associated environmental and navigational issues.

• The Maritime Operations Division monitors ship, crew and coastal pilot compliance with maritime safety standards.

• The Corporate Services Division provides administrative support.

• The Emergency Response Division (ERD) is responsible for delivering national SAR coordination and marine pollution response services.

In 1997, AMSA took on responsibility for national aviation SAR, drawing together the Commonwealth aviation and maritime SAR agencies. Within the ERD, the Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC), formerly known as AusSAR, provides a 24 hour service covering the internationally agreed Australian Search and Rescue Region for the aviation and maritime sectors. RCC officers receive specialist training in SAR and have background experience in the Navy, merchant marine, Air Force, civil aviation or police.

In addition to SAR, the RCC provides a maritime distress and safety communications network, and administers a ship reporting system and ships database. A further important role is the provision of training to designated SAR units in general aviation, and the raising of public awareness of maritime safety issues.

Coordination is key

AMSA operates under guidelines set down in Australia’s National Search and Rescue Plan derived from international and domestic conventions on SAR, safety of life at sea (SOLAS) and civil aviation regulations.

Procedures are in place to determine the allocation of SAR resources according to the scale of an incident. Local assets may be deployed in the first instance, but long-range or especially challenging searches may require the involvement of ADF aircraft or ships.

The Rescue Coordination Centre provides a 24 hour SAR service within Australia’s formally declared SAR region, an area of almost 53 million square kilometres.

The RCC provides a 24 hour SAR servicewithin Australia’s formally declared SAR region, an area of almost 53 million square kilometres including the eastern Indian Ocean, the Coral and Tasman Seas and the Southern Ocean. Despite this vast area of responsibility, AMSA does not own any SAR assets but contracts aircraft operators to provide a SAR capability, including five Dornier 328s operated by Pearl Aviation. AMSA provides equipment and training to contractors and other commercial aviation operators who can be tasked by AMSA to carry out SAR missions.

AMSA relies on cooperation from state and territory agencies, as well as operators of sea and air assets from civil, commercial and government sources, volunteer organisations and the general public.

The RCC coordinates SAR for all missing aircraft, forced landings or ditchings. It acts immediately on missed reports, Mayday calls, emergency locator transmitters and expressions of concern from members of the community. If an aircraft goes missing, the RCC will contact the operator, registered owner and other people associated with the missing aircraft. They will also contact relevant airfields and the air traffic services for information.

If the aircraft is not found as a result of these initial enquiries, a search will begin. The timing and scale depends on the search assets available, the location, weather and time of day or night. The RCC can call on a range of commercial and government bodies to assist with SAR. Using flightplan data, beacon signals if any and reports from the public, the RCC will allocate assets to search areas according to their SAR equipment fit and flying capabilities.

AMSA works closely with Customs’s Coastwatch and the ADF, especially for long range offshore searches. For inshore and port area operations, AMSA cooperates with state and territory police forces that have responsibility for incidents involving fishing vessels and pleasure craft. Typically this involves assistance with broadcasts to shipping and aerial searches.

Beginning in 1999, in a staged progression from paper-based to electronic data management, AMSA transformed its RCC. Advances in technology and increased demand for its services required a greatly enhanced capability to efficiently integrate the great variety of inputs and manage operational communications.

Communications are increasingly digital with formatted data received in near realtime, and presented graphically at the terminal on a duty officer’s desk and on large size wall displays. This obviates the need for time consuming phone calls with their potential for inaccuracy and misunderstanding.

Dornier watch

AMSA’s stated vision is “to be a superior provider of maritime safety, marine environment protection, and maritime and aviation search and rescue”. It operates mainly on a cost recovery basis from fees and levies, but also receives significant funding from the Commonwealth Government specifically for SAR operations and boating safety education.

In the 2004 and 2005 budgets, AMSA received $A74 million, a major boost to its SAR capability resulting in the deployment for the first time of dedicated SAR aircraft to Australia’s coastal cities. Darwincompany, AeroRescue, a division of Pearl Aviation, operates a fleet of five Dornier 328s on behalf of AMSA.

The aircraft are based at Melbourne, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin and Perth.

The Dornier 328-120 has a range of 1500nm (2500km), a 31,000ft ceiling and a speed of up to 310kt. Its mission is to conduct electronic and visual search, drop emergency supplies, provide an on-scene overview and, if required, a command platform. In addition to advanced navigation and safety systems, the Dorniers are fitted with special windows to help visual observation and have a comprehensive sensor package, comprising: • Elta 2002 maritime search radar capable of wide area electronic searches.

It has surveillance, navigation and weather modes as well as special detection and identification capability.

• An FSI Star SaFire III forwardlooking infrared (FLIR) camera system for low light and night search and identification.

• Ability to scan and locate radio transmissions and to home on distress beacons.

• Satellite phones for voice and data link to the RCC.

• An onboard mission management system (MMS) that integrates onboard sensor data with functions to store, display and analyse. The MMS can be optimised to distinguish targets by type of return, eg maritime or aviation, and data can be downlinked to the RCC in Canberra.

• Automatic Identification System (AIS), satellite communications (Iridium) and marine VHF communications.

The Dorniers are AMSA’s first tier of aerial SAR assets. A second tier of approved and trained operators can be called upon to assist if a search or recovery becomes difficult. Ultimately any aircraft in the locality can be requested to assist and they usually do so.

The Dornier fleet has been subject to some criticism and media comment in recent months, but AMSA maintains that the aircraft are performing well and have exceeded expectations in many instances. During the last quarter AMSA’s Emergency Response Centre was involved in the coordination of responses to 175 incidents in which approximately 450 air tasks were issued.

Of these air tasks, Dorniers were involved in 49 (28 per cent) of the 175 incidents for the period.

During the same period, the Dorniers were involved in the saving of 35 lives out of a total 71. AMSA says some technical issues have had to be overcome and modifications, including the fitting of larger doors to enable delivery of larger survival packages, are being undertaken to ensure a more specific ‘fit for purpose’ aircraft.

While other contracted aircraft are available for AMSA missions, the Dornier fleet has enhanced Australia’s search and rescue capability and has proved a worthy platform for a variety of taskings across other agencies, including Coastwatch surveillance and bushfire monitoring.

Switch to 406

AMSA is keen to promote the adoption of 406 MHz distress beacons, including aircraft ELTs (Emergency Locator Transmitters). Older technology beacons and ELTs on the 121. 5 MHz and 243 MHz frequencies are prone to accidental activations and can mask real emergencies. From February 1 2009, satellites will no longer pick up the 121. 5 MHz signal.

The 406 MHz beacons are more accurate and can be detected quicker while transmitting a unique identification code. The code provides information about the owner that can help clarify if the alert is genuine and ensure a more effective SAR response. When activated, the beacon transmits to the Cospas- Sarsat satellite which computes the beacon’s position and transmits it to the RCC. The position is accurate to within five kilometres and, with a GPS add-on, within 120 metres.

CASA plans to soon mandate 406 MHz ELTs for Australian registered aircraft, in line with ICAO (International

An impressive juggling act

AMSA has many successful rescues to its credit and remains alert to the many crisis possibilities in Australia’s area of SAR responsibility. In the words of Governor-General Michael Jeffrey at the 2007 opening of the Emergency Response Centre that incorporates the RCC, “AMSA performs an impressive juggling act” as Australia’s SAR hub, linking and coordinating the diverse range of organisations and individuals that contribute to the national SAR effort.

Despite all the training, advice and modern aids available to seafarers and aviators, there will always be unforeseen events that become or threaten to become disasters. AMSA stands ready at all times to find and come to the aid of the people involved in such crises. o