Search and Rescue
For search and rescue in air and sea emergencies , all states belonging to the ICAO or the IMO are required to operate appropriate organizations and structures. Because of the international nature of the tasks and the areas of application, the term Search and Rescue ( SAR , English for 'search and rescue') has become established for air and sea rescue services in German. Although this is an international task, in many countries - especially in Europe - the concrete help is provided not by state authorities but by non-governmental organizations . Both the operations of the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People and those of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in England are financed by donations .
In order to coordinate and control the rescue measures, all states are obliged to set up responsible rescue coordination centers (RCC = Rescue Coordination Center ) for a specific geographic area ( Search and Rescue Zone ) . There are control centers for air rescue (ARCC = Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Center) and sea rescue (MRCC = Maritime Rescue Coordination Center), which can also act as a unit as Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC). In Germany, the MRCC Bremen is responsible as the coordination and operations center for all sea emergencies.
Basics
All states that acceded to the Chicago Convention of 1944 are required to provide an air emergency service. The corresponding practice with regard to emergencies at sea was only regulated internationally in 1979 in the Convention on Search and Rescue Services at Sea . The basis for the implementation is the IAMSAR manual ( International Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue Manual ) published jointly by the International Civil Aviation Organization ICAO and the International Maritime Organization IMO . Most of the time, the SAR services are integrated into the armed forces , existing rescue services , police or other security authorities.
“Every coastal State shall promote the establishment, operation and maintenance of an adequate and effective search and rescue service regarding safety on and over the water and, where circumstances so require, by way of mutual regional arrangements, co-operate with neighboring states for this purpose. "
"Each coastal state should promote the establishment, operation and maintenance of an appropriate and effective rescue service in and above water and, where the circumstances require, cooperate with neighboring states for these purposes in accordance with mutual agreements."
The IAMSAR manual is an aid to setting up such services:
“ICAO and IMO jointly developed this Manual [...] The goal [...] is to assist State authorities to economically establish effective SAR services, [...] and to ensure that persons in distress will be assisted without regard to their locations, nationality, or circumstances. "
“The ICAO and the IMO developed this manual together. It is designed to help government agencies establish economical and effective SAR services and ensure that people in need are helped, regardless of their location, nationality or circumstances. "
Apart from rescuing shipwrecked or crashed aircraft crews, there are other state interests in maintaining or supporting a functioning rescue chain. Such is the sense of security , particularly in the water, an important prerequisite for the tourism to promote. Damaged ships can also pose a significant threat to the environment, which would have a negative impact on tourism. Often security service providers are also leaders in prevention .
SAR (aircraft)
Air emergencies
In the event of an emergency, the rescue workers are primarily called in by the air traffic control center involved . An activated ELT ( COSPAS-SARSAT emergency radio beacon) can also trigger the alarm. The use of suitable rescue equipment, which is coordinated by a responsible Rescue Coordination Center , is generally only possible in the event of a flight emergency or an aircraft accident when the aircraft has reached the ground.
SAR service for aircraft in Germany
In Germany, the army and navy undertake the SAR service for aircraft.
Sea rescue (maritime SAR service)
Aid for people in distress at sea is called rescue at sea . Activities include rescuing shipwrecked people, fighting fires at sea and searching for missing persons. Sea rescue services mostly use ships or boats as operational resources, but helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft can also be used, but the latter almost exclusively if the place of operation is very far from the coast. Your primary task is to evacuate people from life-threatening situations - the rescue or recovery of property is secondary.
Ocean rescue
Sea rescue on the high seas far from the coast is much more difficult than near the coast. The distress communication beyond the coastal waters is handled via border, medium and shortwave radio as well as satellite communication. Emergency beacons can automatically emit emergency signals that are relayed via satellites. In contrast to a satellite telephone or a radio connection, however, these do not allow further content, such as the type of emergency, to be passed on.
When an emergency call is made, international law ( SOLAS 1974 ) requires ships in the area to provide assistance. However, these often have approaches that can take several hours. When an MRCC is alerted, other ships are dispatched to the scene of the incident. The special SAR units of the sea rescue companies can usually not be used because their operational range is too small. Therefore, the maritime patrols of the armed forces of the neighboring countries are alerted to start an immediate search operation. AIS signals and thus ship positions are now often publicly available worldwide on the Internet, which means that control centers can very quickly locate ships in the vicinity of an accident location (e.g. Vesseltracker ).
Maritime SAR service in Germany
As a result of the Convention on Search and Rescue at Sea, concluded in 1979 within the framework of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the maintenance of a maritime SAR service also became a state responsibility in Germany. The Federal Ministry of Transport (today: Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure) has assigned this task through a corresponding agreement to the German Society for Rescue of Shipwrecked People, which previously carried out the sea rescue service. For this purpose, the DGzRS maintains a fleet of rescue cruisers and a rescue control center with the Bremen emergency management .
The maritime SAR service is supported by the SAR service for aircraft. This applies in particular to the SAR helicopter ( Sea King ) of the Naval Aviation Squadron 5 kept by the Navy at the Nordholz Air Base .
In the event of complex damage situations at sea, the emergency command takes over the operations management and the sea emergency management becomes the SAR operations section management. It also sends a specialist advisor to the average team.
Course of a rescue operation
Note: The following sections use the terms of seafaring, but the rescue operation when looking for a crashed aircraft - especially on water - is equivalent, the manuals for this are provided by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) jointly published.
Alerting
If a ship or an airplane is in distress, it uses one of the pre-defined distress signals to draw attention to its situation. The most common method today is through the use of two-way radios. This method is very reliable within the range of the devices and has the decisive advantage that information about the type of emergency can be transmitted and queries are also possible. DSC- enabled radios are standard today; they automatically transmit the position of the victim in digital form when a special emergency button is pressed. Apart from triggering the alarm by a ship itself, the rescue teams can also receive an emergency call because a ship is overdue and missing.
Alarms triggered by DSC are automatically displayed on all ships within range (approx. 30 nm, approx. 55 km) and an acoustic signal informs the guard; Since the introduction of the DSC, permanent monitoring of radio traffic is no longer mandatory. If a Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) is within range, it will be the first to respond to the emergency call and try to find out more details about the accident and the circumstances with the victim. The alarm is passed on to as many ships as possible in the vicinity. The stationary radio systems available to the MRCC have a much greater range than a single ship can achieve on its own.
A further alarm in an emergency is guaranteed by emergency radio beacons (EPIRS = Emergency position-Indicating radiobeacon station ), which must be carried by seagoing ships from 300 GT and passenger ships. These devices are triggered either manually or automatically by a pressure sensor (pressure increase when going down). A small radio transmitter sends an emergency signal on the internationally agreed emergency frequency of 406 MHz, which can be received by earth-orbiting or geostationary COSPAS-SARSAT satellites. These immediately forward the emergency call to a rescue control center on earth. As part of the GMDSS , information about the ship ( MMSI ) and the current coordinates are sent with the distress signal. In addition, beacons send out a bearing signal that makes it easier for the SAR units to localize.
search
Now the rescue operation begins. According to international law of the sea , all ships are obliged to come to the aid of people in need, unless they put themselves or their own crew in considerable danger. The ships that have received the alarm and can reach the disturbed ship in a reasonable time will therefore make their way there. In addition, where possible and reasonable, the MRCC will arrange for one or more sea rescue units to sail.
The first ship at the damage site (or in the area of operation, if this cannot be precisely determined) takes on the role of the on-scene coordinator (OSC) for the operation. This ship has the task of coordinating the rescue measures on site. The role of the on-scene coordinator can be reassigned later after consultation with the MRCC or among the ships involved, if a more suitable ship arrives on site - for example one with better communication equipment or one of the sea rescue with specially trained personnel.
The first task of the rescuers is to find the wrecked ship. This is particularly difficult if the emergency was triggered by the fact that a ship has become overdue and is missing. Finding people who have gone overboard is an extremely difficult task, especially when bad weather or darkness are still hampering the search. The OSC plans and coordinates, in cooperation with the responsible MRCC, the search patterns that are to be followed or flown by those involved.
If the position of the damaged vessel is known or has been found, he is approached - but always with the necessary caution and taking into account the reasons for the accident. It would be fatal if the rescuer got stuck in the same shoal or walked onto the same reef . In addition, debris in the water could endanger your own ship. If large ships come to the aid of smaller ones near the shore, they often have to watch almost idly until other rescue workers are on site because they cannot get near the damaged vessel.
Salvage
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The primary obligation to provide assistance applies only to people, not to property or the ships themselves. It is therefore up to the rescuer (the skipper of the assistant) whether he wants to attempt a recovery (taking over the persons) or a towing maneuver. He will usually choose the variant that involves the least risk for those involved and also has the least influence on his own timetable - a cargo ship can hardly tow a sailing ship halfway across the ocean, that would take far too long.
If people have to be rescued from the water, approach them carefully as in a man overboard maneuver , so as not to run over them or injure them with the propeller. Large ships are for a lifeboat or rescue boat expose. Hypothermic people must be rescued from the water particularly gently and as horizontally as possible in order to avoid a rescue death. Ships specialized in search and rescue usually have openings at water level so that the casualty only has to be rolled into it. Specialized rescue equipment like the Jason's Cradle was specially developed to gently rescue exhausted, hypothermic and possibly even unconscious people. Alternatively, you can use the low freeboard of a life raft for rescue. Large ships may have a rescue cage that can be lowered into the water by a crane.
Life rafts can possibly be salvaged directly on a crane, otherwise the people must also be transferred to a lifeboat to get on board a larger ship. If the people from a sinking leisure yacht have to be taken over by a large ship, a dinghy will also be used if possible. If this is not possible because of the rough sea, the small ship can try to go alongside the large one using a line connection. The tall one will then lower a pilot ladder or a stairway (or a boarding net ) on the ship's side to enable the people to climb. However, this is not a safe matter either - it has happened that people got caught between the two ships while staying and were crushed. In addition, the people on the damaged ship are often exhausted.
graduation
Once all the missing persons have been found and rescued, the OSC, in conjunction with the MRCC, will declare the search ended and the ships involved in the rescue operation will be released. The further transport of injured or sick people may have to be organized, for example by being taken over by a rescue helicopter. Damaged ships that had to be abandoned but have not yet sunk themselves are often deliberately sunk so that they no longer pose any further danger to others. However, if these are stuck in unfavorable places - for example in narrow canals or on busy routes - specialist companies are then called in to salvage the wreck . This may also be necessary if hazards to the environment, such as fuel spills, have to be eliminated.
If the search was unsuccessful, the OSC, together with the MRCC , decides to abort the search.
Questions about guilt and possible claims for damages only come into play afterwards. In addition to the courts, the marine casualty investigation authorities of the flag states of the ships involved in the accident (in Germany the Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation ) may also have an interest in dealing with the accident. However, your focus is not on assigning blame, but on clarifying the cause in order to avoid this in the future - for example by formulating safety recommendations.
SAR services worldwide
The following is an example of the responsibilities for the SAR service in some other countries around the world.
- United States
- In the USA, the SAR services are coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( United States Department of Homeland Security ). SAR services are available in the armed forces , but also at the level of the states and the individual counties. Maritime SAR missions are often carried out by the US Coast Guard .
- Belgium
- In Belgium , Westland Sea Kings of the 40th Air Force Squadron are used for search and rescue.
- Netherlands
- In the Netherlands , Bell 412 helicopters are used by the Air Force for search and rescue. The West Frisian Islands are particularly frequented . The SAR service has been operated civilly since 2015.
- Great Britain
- In Great Britain the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy provided the air SAR service for the HMCG with Westland Sea-King helicopters . Since March 2015 this task has been taken over by Bristow Helicopters, a civil service provider, for 10 years. Part of England's SAR capability was already covered by civilian providers. The outdated Sea King machines and the lack of military capacity are given as the reason for the change. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), which, like the DGzRS, is a donation-financed non-profit organization, is responsible for the sea rescue service in Great Britain .
- Finland
- In Finland , 70% of the SAR service is provided by the Finnish border guards. The remaining 30% are covered by civilian providers.
- Greece
- In Greece , the air force there keeps helicopters of the type AS 332 Super Puma for the SAR service ( photo ). The private rescue organization Elliniki Omada Diasosis mainly carries out sea rescue, mountain rescue and, since 1994, Urban Search and Rescue , with groups of dogs also available.
- Croatia
- In Croatia , the SAR service is subject to the Croatian Navy and the Coast Guard. The head office is in Rijeka .
- Italy
- In Italy , the Air Force maintains a nationwide airborne SAR service. The most important base is Pratica di Mare near Rome. The coast guard is primarily responsible for the maritime SAR service .
- New Zealand
- In New Zealand , the police near the coast and the Coast Guard (Maritime Safety Authority) carry out search and rescue operations in large search areas.
- Canada
- In Canada , the Coast Guard is the primary provider of the maritime SAR service.
- Bahamas
- There is no institution in the Bahamas that operates SAR services with permanent employees. This task (guaranteeing sea rescue) is carried out by volunteer members of the BASRA organization. They are assisted by the military and the U.S. Coast Guard when necessary.
See also
literature
- Evans Clayton: Rescue at Sea: An International History of Lifesaving, Coastal Rescue Craft and Organizations . Conway Maritime Press 2003, ISBN 978-0-85-177934-8 .
- Holger Scholl: Air rescue . Stumpf and Kossendey, Edewecht / Vienna 2002. pp. 195 ff. ISBN 3-932-750-77-2 .
Web links
German SAR services
- Website of the military SAR service - SAR manual, annual reports, operational plans in the download area
- Website of the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People
International
- SAR service in Belgium
- SAR service in the Netherlands
- Maritime SAR service in Canada
- voluntary SAR organization in the Bahamas
- SAR service in the USA
Individual evidence
- ↑ IAMSAR manual , chapter 1.2
- ↑ International Civil Aviation Organization and International Maritime Organization: IAMSAR Manual , Volume III: Mobile Facilities, 2007 Consolidated Edition. PDF ( Memento of the original from January 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Seamanship. Yachting manual. 30th edition, Delius Klasing Verlag , Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-7688-3248-9 . Pages 443ff
- ^ Written statement to Parliament Search and rescue helicopters. Retrieved May 16, 2015 .
- ^ Maritime search and rescue (SAR). In: Rajavartiolaitos The Finnish Border Guard. Retrieved May 29, 2015 .
- ^ Hellenic Rescue Team - USAR , accessed August 27, 2018.
- ↑ http://www.ocean7.at/news,id1902,sar_mehr_einsaetze_kroatien.html
