SUB-CINNUTTEE ON
RADIOCOMMUNICATIONS AND SEARCH
AND RESCUE
4th session
Agenda item 8.2
COMSAR 4/8/1
16 March 1999
Original: ENGLISH
MATTERS CONCERNING SEARCH AND RESCUE, INCLUDING THOSE RELATED TO THE 1979 SARCONFERENCE AND THE INTRODUCTION OF THE GMDSS
Routeing distress alerts
Note by the United States
SUMMARY
Executive summary: The Sub-Committee and States are invited to take actions, as a matter of urgency, to complete the IMO SAR plan
Action to be taken: Paragraph 5
Related documents: IMO provisional SAR plan
1 The IMO SAR Plan is a tool intended to serve two very important purposes: it clarifies who is mainly responsible for co-ordinating and arranging for SAR services; and it provides a Plan for efficient distribution of distress alerts to responsible RCCs. Considering these purposes, the IMO SAR Plan should have been completed before the first element of GMDSS alerting equipment was installed aboard a vessel or craft at sea. The GMDSS is now fully implemented for SOLAS ships, but the IMO SAR Plan remains nearly non-existent. However, the Plan is still a fundamental necessity, and its development should be expedited if at all possible. This makes it necessary to review the procedures by which the Plan can be finalized.
2 What actually exists is the Provisional SAR Plan, complete after many years of nurturing by IMO. IMO cannot, however, recommend distribution of alerts in accordance with the Provisional SAR Plan, because the lines separating the SAR regions (SRRs) remain unendorsed by States due to their lack of formal SAR Agreements with States having neighbouring SAR regions. IMO is not in a position to answer a question at this time from COSPAS-SARSAT Inmarsat or others on how to use the IMO SAR Plan or Provisional SAR Plan for their intended purposes - a question it should have been able to answer years ago. This is a very detrimental situation for SAR, not everywhere, but in much of the world. Unless something changes, additional decades will pass without completion of the IMO SAR Plan.
3 Pertinent provisions of the revised Annex to the SAR Convention read as follows:
"2.1.3 To help ensure the provision of adequate shore-based communication infrastructure, efficient distress alert routeing and proper operational co-ordination to effectively support search and rescue services, Parties shall, individually or in co-operation with other States, ensure that sufficient search and rescue regions are established within each sea area in accordance with paragraphs 2.1.4 and 2.1.5. Such regions should be contiguous and, as far as practicable, not overlap.
