Finding Needles

“We get to see all the flights that go wrong, not the thousands of flights that go well every year,” AMSA’s general manager, search and rescue John Young, told Australian Aviation.

“Most incidents are pilots forgetting to cancel a SAR time and these are often quickly resolved with a follow-up phone call or two, however, around 500 of these incidents involve the tasking of a SAR asset. On average we will respond to one incident a month that will progress to something bigger that is beyond an out and back search and rescue. Searches that go into a second day and require more aircraft are becoming few and far between these days. ” AMSA was created in 1991 as an independent regulator of the maritime industry and to effect maritime SAR. While there is no reference to ‘aviation’ in its name, AMSA became responsible for aeronautical SAR services on July 1 1997, and the agency maintains strong connections with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and Airservices Australia.

Regulatory functions such as the provision of marine navigation aids, protection of the sea and pollution response are funded by levies on shipping, while its SAR work is funded directly by the federal government as a community service obligation. That funding amounts to around $42 million per year for SAR infrastructure and a separate appropriation of close to $10 million for SAR operations.

“Search and rescue in Australia is a cooperative between the Commonwealth and the states and territories requiring a range of capabilities and skills working together,” said Young. “In addition to our dedicated aircraft, we maintain a list of qualified aviation operators for the provision of opportunity-based search and rescue services strategically located around Australia that we can charter as needed. ” Those dedicated aircraft currently comprise five Dornier 328 turboprops, operated under contract for AMSA. The Dorniers are based out of Brisbane, Cairns, Essendon and Perth airports, and are contracted to be taxiing within 30 minutes by day and within 60 minutes by night after the receipt of an activation phone call from the JRCC.

AMSA is also able to call on Australian Defence Force assets for SAR when the civil community cannot meet a capability, such as for long-range searches over water.

“Simplistically, when an incident happens at a particular place at a particular time, we can draw a circle around it and see who is available that could help,” said Young. “It could be a merchant ship, a civil airliner that gets asked to descend and take a look or a dedicated SAR asset. We have great examples of ships making rescues from yachts, but this is enabled by the fact that one of our aircraft is overhead helping to coordinate it. ”

JRCC

The JRCC is the central nervous system of all AMSA’s searches and rescues. Split into aviation and maritime areas, the JRCC is a hub of information and communication inputs and is manned by SAR officers (SAROs), reporting to their respective SAR mission coordinators.

Those information inputs include a radar feed and flight planning information from Airservices which is combined on a screen showing all commercial vessels. SAROs can also see aircraft squawking 1200 using a Mode-S transponder allowing them to track and confirm for certain if the aircraft they might be looking for is the one in question on their screen.

Soon AMSA will also receive a feed from Airservices of all flights equipped with ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast) transponders, while ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) derived ADS-C (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Contact) information from aircraft flying over oceanic airspace is also being considered for inclusion into AMSA’s SAR picture.

Despite the technology, an issue AMSA encounters quite often during a search for an overdue aircraft is the lack of flightplan details. “If someone hasn’t turned up we will ask which way were they going, to which we almost always hear ‘we don’t know’,” said Scott Constable, an exair traffic controller who is a SAR chief in the JRCC.

“Then we have to try to work out, often over a very large area, which way would the flight have gone. Sometimes you end up with three or four possible routes. Then we delve into radar replays or anything that will give us a clue. It makes it very difficult sometimes – if only they had written down some basic details and left it with someone. ” When an aircraft goes missing over heavily vegetated mountainous terrain like the Great Diving Range they can be very difficult to find, Constable noted. “While we do night searches, they are not as effective as daylight searches in general. Even if locating someone in the dark is fairly remote we will still look to putting up an aircraft because it is possible there are survivors down there looking up and a slight hope of them realising someone is searching for them could get them through until the next day. We have had instances where people have said their spirits have risen with the sight or sound of a helicopter looking for them and they’ve been able to hang on just that little bit longer. ” Alan Lloyd, manager, SAR operations, explained that the time of day when AMSA is alerted to a missing aircraft can be critical.

“Family members who are holding a SAR time or a flight note start to get worried around about the time that it gets dark,” Lloyd said. “Of course that is the worst time to give us a call because it is usually around 12 hours until you get the best conditions for a visual search. We can use specialist capabilities at night, but in practice we often end up sending out aircraft with observers looking out the windows for colour or some sort of object and that’s a daylight job, both for aircraft safety and for the performance of the observer. Calling a few hours earlier can help a lot. ” Should an aircraft ditch at sea and successfully deploy a life raft, AMSA uses drift modelling software that theoretically emulates water movement for search coordinators to work out where a search area needs to be established. To confirm the theoretical drift, a search aircraft can drop a satellite-enabled datum buoy to validate what the water is doing and the drift pattern. The environmentally friendly buoys will run on battery for around 30 days before they expire and eventually sink into the ocean.

But should a successful rescue be deemed no longer achievable, a search will be called off. The search for a Cessna 172 that crashed into waters off the coast of Byron Bay in northern NSW on March 21 was called off around 17 hours after it commenced following expert medical advice to AMSA that indicated had the pilot survived the initial impact, then the weather conditions and sea temperature would have proven unsurvivable after this time.

Building a picture

For over 16 years AMSA has been developing in-house a SAR incident management system called Nexus, a graphical information system that captures an abundance of information for every search and is the primary tool used during active searches to build up a situational awareness picture.

When last November explorer and photographer Richard Green’s EC135 was reported overdue by a family member, AMSA began building a picture using Nexus to locate it, starting with basic details about the helicopter such as its registered owner and pilot information from CASA’s database. Having entered the helicopter’s last known departure point and its anticipated firstarrival location into the system, further information was gathered from the next-of-kin, from the helicopter’s engineer and from information provided by a telco of a single detected ‘hand shake’ from a mobile phone on board with a cellular receiver tower. A more accurate picture of where the helicopter might have been quickly took shape.

“While no activated ELT signal was detected along the suggested flightpath, we obtained a radar replay from Airservices of the region in question which showed an unidentified VFR target in the time window of when the helicopter went missing,” said Lloyd.

“Local media coverage encouraged a member of the public to come forward with a confirmed sighting that fitted the description of the helicopter. This location was then entered into Nexus. We overlaid a weather image obtained from the Bureau of Meteorology that showed a weather front passing through the area at the same time with poor weather. Pretty soon a very accurate picture was narrowed down and an intended search area was developed. ” Given the search area for the EC135 was over heavily-wooded terrain, AMSA tasked a number of helicopters to begin a low and slow visual search in a focused area. Within 12 hours of the search commencing, wreckage matching the missing helicopter was located.

Sadly there were no survivors, and the ATSB is currently investigating the cause of the accident.

New Challengers ahead

A new 12-year, $640 million contract signed in October 2014 with Cobham SAR Services, will see the progressive changeover to a new service provider from August.

Under the new contract, Cobham will operate and crew four Bombardier Challenger 604 aircraft from three bases at Cairns, Essendon and Perth airports. The modified business jets will be crewed by a captain, first officer, mission coordinator, drop master and visual observer, and will be commissioned incrementally with operations from Perth Airport commencing in August. The Cairns-based Challenger will start flying in October with the Essendon aircraft to come online in December. An operational spare Challenger will be based at Essendon from March 1 next year.

“We are working with AeroRescue to continue providing a reliable and effective service until the transition to the new contracted provider is completed,” said Young. “The Dorniers have done a great job for us and while we are moving on to these faster jet aircraft, AeroRescue actually helped us make a big leap from what preceded them, which was piston-engined Titans and Chieftains flying around with the door off, to what was a much more capable platform with lots of sensors and communications that we could interact with in the RCC. ” The first two 604s are now in Australia with the first, VH-XNC, currently undergoing a fitout of its special mission equipment at Cobham’s facility at Adelaide Airport. Cobham is working with IT systems designers Acacia, also from Adelaide, on the mission systems for the aircraft. The remaining two Challengers will be delivered to Cobham after being modified by Canada’s Field Aviation with the installation of an inflight opening door and large observation windows.

“The new contract is similar in the level of service that we get at the moment in coverage terms, but one of the really big advantages we will get is that we will be working from three bases rather than five,” said Young. “This will mean a higher utilisation of the aircraft. While fewer bases means fewer crews, which is more economical, it also means a richer experience for the crews in terms of doing searches. And I see that as a direct advantage. ” The Challengers will all be equipped with a host of new electronic sensors including a Selex 5000E Seaspray radar, an L3 Wescam MX15 turret camera with high definition imaging from electro-optical and infrared cameras, a Techcomm TC 5025/TC 8111 direction finder, an Avionics TX-20 Automatic Identification System transponder, a Kinetic Avionics ADS-B receiver, a video anomaly detection system (ViDar) and a Cobham-developed mobile phone direction finding system. The jets will also have broadband internet connectivity anywhere in the world enabling the crew to stream high definition video back to the JRCC.

ViDar is a military capability that has made its way into the civil world and uses three ultra-high definition cameras mounted on the wings and fuselage to automatically detect anomalies on the sea surface in pixels of a video stream. “It scans the ocean and detects anything unusual and presents it to the operator as a zoomed-in picture to have a look at to determine if it is of interest,” said Lloyd. “We need to see how well it goes but the prospects are profoundly changing the way we do searches for small objects at sea. At the moment we have multiple closely-spaced aircraft looking for small

We will have the ability to detect mobile phones and act as a flying cell tower. JOHN YOUNG

objects. If this can change the dynamic, even if it is for the first aircraft that arrives to do a scan, that will change the way we do business. ” Telephone direction finding systems are also new to the world of SAR. The advanced use of mobile phone technology detection will allow AMSA to enter an International Mobile Equipment Identity number to find a phone and send it a SMS text message to say it is looking for you.

“The big game changer for us has been the work we do with Telstra, Optus and Vodaphone,” said Young. “Every pilot pretty much has a mobile phone these days. In the past two years, many of our wide area searches that we have had has been resolved within 12 to 24 hours by the use of mobile phone technologies. Once the Challenger aircraft come onboard, and once we clear privacy legislation, we will have the ability to detect mobile phones and act as a flying cell tower and make clear voice calls. If there is no coverage out there, all of a sudden there will be a network that comes up when the Challenger is overhead. Your phone will go from being dead to having a network signal. ”

The jet effect

The selection of a jet-based SAR platform has sparked some debate in aviation circles. Will the Challengers have the stores dropping capability that AMSA expects, for example? “The project is currently on schedule although there is still a lot of work to be done to start operations in August,” said Young. “Over the last few weeks the aircraft has deployed all stores safely out and we’re moving on to the next step of delivering them accurately. I have great confidence in Cobham to pull it all together as they have great experiences in special mission operations. ” For the SAROs in the JRCC, the new Challengers will require a change in mindset from a performance perspective when compared to the Dornier.

“It is much faster and it has a lot more endurance,” said Constable. “But there is tradeoff with that as the Dorniers can search at a slower speed at 140kt versus the Challenger’s 180kt to 200kt. Its reach is greater which may mean we will not need to ask Defence for a Hercules or an Orion as much. So there are various compromises between the two and it will be interesting to see once we start operating the 604s. ”

Beacons and trends

Over 70 per cent of all search and rescue incidents AMSA responded to in 2014-15 involved a distress beacon. The uptake in the ownership and use of 406Mhz distress beacons within Australia sees 430,000 now registered with AMSA. Of these, more than 65 per cent are equipped with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), which provides precise location information, minimising the search time required.

However, according to Young, there will be more beacons out there as not everyone is registering them. “People do buy GNSS-equipped beacons but do not complete registration of their details. The uptake of beacons and a decent registration rate means a whole lot of incidents and their resolution is much faster as you know exactly where you are going to look for them. ” Every single beacon alert, whether it be from a bushwalker’s personal location beacon (PLB), a sailor’s emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) or a downed pilot’s emergency location transmitter (ELT), comes into the JRCC via the worldwide Cospas-Sarsat satellite system.

Low Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (LEOSAR) and geostationary SAR satellites make up the Cospas-Sarsat constellation. Positioned over the equator, geostationary SAR satellites can detect activated beacons within 70 degrees north and south latitude. Polar-orbiting LEOSAR satellites are used to fill in the gaps.

LEOSAR satellites have a footprint over the ground of around a 3,000km radius. If an activated GNSS-equipped beacon is sitting inside that footprint, the satellite will detect it and immediately download its exact GPS coordinates to a ground receiver station in range. However, the exact location of non-GNSS beacons cannot be identified without the pass of a second satellite, which can take anywhere between 45 minutes to three hours for a second pass and is accurate to about a 10km radius.

In August, Cospas-Sarsat will be replaced by a network of Medium-altitude Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (MEOSAR) satellites that work on a different premise. Once fully operational, the MEOSAR system will reduce beacon detection times from hours under the current system, to within 10 minutes, 95 per cent of the time.

Moving slower and higher in orbit, MEOSAR will mean the need for a second pass is no longer required.

“Because they are higher in orbit and there will be an increased number of satellites to cover a larger surface area, then the detection of every beacon will be detected immediately,” said Lloyd. “We won’t have to wait for a satellite, we won’t have to wait for the download and we will get a more accurate position more quickly. MEOSAR will change the game as well because when a beacon is detected we are more likely to determine that it is active somewhere close to a local waste disposal facility which will be another little snippet of information to help us to deal with the issue efficiently. ” Since February 1 2009, old 121. 5 MHz beacons have only been able to be detected by overflying aircraft.

“People are still try to use the analogue 121. 5Mhz beacons even though it is seven years since the satellites have not been able to pick up the signal,” said Lloyd. “They are dying out, but we find them in tips a lot. It’s such a waste of valuable and expensive assets, both people and helicopters, when people don’t dispose of old beacons properly. ” That is a message that is echoed by the Sydney-based Westpac Lifesaver Rescue Helicopter Service chief executive Stephen Leahy.

“We did a job a couple of years ago at Terry Hills north of Sydney for an activated older 121. 5MHz beacon,” said Leahy. “We landed at the tip and located it amongst a whole heap of rubbish and turned it off, but the signal was still coming. We looked around a bit and lo and behold there was a second activated beacon. We turned that one off too and, would you believe, a third one was pinging away. Please, when you are disposing of your old beacon, don’t just throw them in the bin, take it to your local battery store or disconnect it according to the manufacturer’s instructions. We are wasting a lot of time and effort on these false alarms. ”

MH370

The most notable and complex search AMSA has been involved in was for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the Boeing 777-200ER that disappeared almost without trace in March 2014.

The search for MH370 brought new challenges of scale and complexity for AMSA.

“The key factors that drove the way the search worked were firstly the information being used to determine where to search was novel and innovative to use the ACARS signals coming from the aircraft and use that as a basis to calculate where the aircraft may have gone,” said Young. “That was outside our experience and I think at the start it was outside everyone’s experience. This was being done by an international team in Malaysia and we were working on information that was coming from there. ” As the team was refining its calculations, AMSA too was refining the search area.

“The sheer geography of the search area and trying to run a major visual search looking for small items of floating debris or a life raft day after day 2,000nm offshore was complex and challenging,” said Young. “It was also unusual that after the time for survival had passed – a period when we would normally say the search and rescue is over – we kept searching for debris because that’s what was needed for the circumstance. Perhaps strictly not our job but clearly we were best placed to continue that effort. ” Adding to the complexity was the number of military aircraft used in the search, both Australian and foreign, the high level of international media interest and the engagement of political leaders from Malaysia, China and Australia.

“This was a dimension that we hadn’t dealt with before,” said Young. “But at the heart of it there was nothing that was brand new for us, it was just big and long and taken to extremes. ” Early media reports were showing what looked like satellite imagery of floating wreckage. With assistance from across the Australian government, AMSA analysed these objects with most discounted. Those possibly linked to MH370 were incorporated into the search areas. The search revealed there was a considerable amount of rubbish in the ocean, making it difficult to determine if it was debris or not. Although there were many ships involved in the search, some with helicopters, it was difficult to locate objects from the imagery by the time a search asset could reach the location. Public perception was that if an airliner crashed into the water there would be lots of debris, but AMSA says that is not necessarily the case.

“We asked the question of ‘what does the Indian Ocean normally look like?’, said Lloyd. “Well, nobody knew. ” Technology is beginning to offer the aviation industry and SAR with real opportunities to reduce the amount of search and therefore allowing for more rescue. Since MH370, and also the crash of Air France flight AF447, the development of space-based ADS-B and the ability to trigger an alert independent of the crew is on the horizon.

“The aim is to have one minute updates so ‘search’ is taken out of ‘search and rescue’,” said Young. “At the moment you have got airliners flying across the middle of very large oceans and if they happen to drop out of the sky, which fortunately doesn’t happen every day, we have huge search areas. We are trying to get away from having that. ”

Job satisfaction

With a background in the Navy, Young joined AMSA in 1998 as a SAR analysis officer and became general manager of SAR a decade later.

“What you need in the JRCC are people who understand what happens outside and who can issue decent coordination instructions,” said Young. “They need to be able to pitch their minds out there to the yacht that is in trouble and what might be happening and what it will mean for the aircraft going out there. Generally, it is hard to get that in one person, but with a mix of experience in the JRCC you get a good coordination service arising out of that. ” AMSA’s aviation SAROs have a range of civil and military flying experience, both fixed and rotary wing, and in air traffic control, while its maritime SAROs are mostly from Navy, water police units, and international coast guards.

“It’s a very interesting and varying job that you don’t know what to expect either,” said Constable. “There are some pressures as well and things that happen which are not nice to deal with. At times you are dealing with family members who might have lost loved ones which you have to cope with and then there are the rigours of shift work as well. ” For an aspiring aviation SARO, a background in aviation certainly helps, but it is not all about aviation. Being able to keep up with developing information system technologies is essential.

“You need to be tech savvy and be able to keep up with new communications channels like social media that people are using these days to communicate,” said Young. “Social media is changing the world, including ours.

“It’s a satisfying job, especially when you help to save someone’s life. We exist to keep seafarers safe, keep the marine environment clean and rescue people in distress. It is not hard to turn up to work for those objectives. ”

It is not hard to turn up to work for those objectives. JOHN YOUNG