6 Unfortunately, in some distress alerts a reliable position is not included, while other alerts are followed by a position which has not been updated, thus placing the responsibility by the "wrong" (M) RCC.
7 DSC distress alerts transmitted via MF and HF, are often received by several CRS. If such alerts are received without a valid position there might be more than one (M) RCC acting upon the same alert, causing confusion and waste of SAR resources.
8 In order to have the "correct" (M) RCC responding to a distress alert, in which a position is not included or is not reliable, other criteria such as type of alerting facility and identity of the ship may be used.
9 So far, no exact procedures to be followed by (M) RCCs related to the different alerting systems are developed, except for those general procedures published by ITU, mostly focusing on CRS-procedures.
10 RCC Stavanger has developed draft procedures to be used upon reception of distress alerts, focusing on the nature of the alerting system. The draft procedures are annexed to this document. Annex 1 gives procedures for handling distress alerts received by DSC. Annex 2 gives procedures for handling distress alerts received by Inmarsat-C and B. In addition to this the RCC's operational manual contains examples explaining the different types of alert.
11 The draft RCC procedures made by RCC Stavanger were discussed at the 9th session of the North Sea Regional Conference on GMDSS (NRC-9) in Amsterdam. Participants from different countries confirmed that their own RCC procedures were more or less equal to draft procedures. In order to ensure equal handling of SAR incidents such procedures should be uniformed.
12 The NRC-9 also agreed that the subject should be brought to the attention of IMO at COMSAR 4, in order to incorporate such procedures into the "IAMSAR Manual".
Action requested of the Sub-Committee
13 The Sub-Committee is requested to consider this proposal and act as appropriate.
