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9.05 Distress signals

Agency responsible
Data group
09. Data collected by aerial assets
Coast Guard Functions with access
Maritime Safety Including Vessel Traffic Management
Maritime Ship and Port Security
Maritime Customs Activities
Prevention and Suppression of Trafficking and Smuggling and Connected Maritime Law Enforcement
Maritime Border Control
Maritime Monitoring and Surveillance
Maritime Environmental Protection & Response
Maritime Search and Rescue
Ship Casualty & Maritime Assistance Service
Maritime Accident and Disaster Response
Fisheries Inspection & Control
Status of implementation
In development
Dissemination channels
Agency web interface
Point(s) of contact

EMSA’s Maritime Support Services (MSS)

Submitted by Ioana.Hartescu on

EMSA’s Maritime Support Services (MSS)

Telephone
+351 211 209 415
Fax
+351 211 209 480
Email
MaritimeSupportServices@emsa.europa.eu

RPAS service

Submitted by maria.corredoi… on

RPAS service

Email
rpas@emsa.europa.eu
Last reviewed on
Last saved on
Description

Distress receivers on board aerial vehicles deployed under  

  • EFCA tasked Aerial Surveillance 
  • EMSA RPAS services 
  • EUROSUR Fusion Services (EFS) - Frontex Surveillance Aircraft (FSA)  

receive distress signal emitted by vessels or persons on distress on sea.  data within detection range. The distress signals can stem from GMDSS devices or beacons of different frequencies. These distress signals will be immediately localised and forwarded to the appropriate MRCCs. The aerial assets will be available to support any emergency operations as requested by the MRCC, e.g. taking video and images of the theatre, staying on-site of the emergency. 

Data elements

The following distress alerts mechanisms are supported: 

  • EPIRB: EPIRB with 06 and 121.5 Mhz signals allow homing to itself being a significant aid to search and rescue activities.  
  • RARAR-Search and rescue transponder (SART): X-band radar signals allow homing to itself. It is expected that the RPAS maritime radar already can detect and interpret these radar pulses 
  • EPIRB-AIS, AIS Man Overboard (MOB), AIS-SART: An AIS device is a mobile equipment mounted on an EPIRB, MOB or SART, to assist homing to itself (i.e. life boats, life raft) by transmitting a text broadcast. 

Additionally, AIS information of vessel in the vicinity of point of distress and video and image data of the theatre will be provided. Please see data sheets 10.1. Video and images (optical and IR) and 10.4 AIS data. 

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Legal basis
  • EFCA Regulation (EU) 2019/473 
  • EMSA Regulation (EU) 2016/1625  
  • EBCG Regulation (EU) 2019/1896 
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Scope and source of data

The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) is a global network of emergency communications for ships comprising various different communication networks using both satellite and terrestrial radio services. The GMDSS system makes use of shipboard search and rescue devices, one of which is the AIS Search and Rescue Transmitter (AIS-SART), which, since 1 January 2010, can be used in lieu of a radar Search and Rescue Transponder (X-Band SART) on SOLAS ships. 

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Technical implementation

The technical implementation varies from supplier to supplier and all or selected data elements as described above will be received from the aerial asset and further disseminated via RLOS or BRLOS datalink to the ground systems for immediate alerting of the relevant MRCCs.  

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Conditions of access

Public administrations from the EU Member States and EFTA/SAC coastal states, and EU Agencies can request for RPAS services, which also provide distress signal detection. Distress data will be automatically routed to the local MRCC. Access to the data coming from the services is limited to Agencies and relevant participating MS authorities as identified by the requesting authority. 

  • EFCA will provide the information to any requesting authority involved in coastguard operations 
  • EMSA will provide the requesting administration with the ownership of the operation. 
  • Frontex will have the ownership of the operation 
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