C/S G.003 - INTRODUCTION TO THE COSPAS-SARSAT SYSTEM Issue 7

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was established by the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation (the Chicago Convention), which was originally ratified by the necessary 26 countries in 1947, and which has been updated many times since then.

 The following Annexes to the Chicago Convention are of particular interest to Cospas-Sarsat:

·           Annex 6:          Operation of Aircraft

This Annex describes the regulations for the operation of vehicles that fly internationally, including commercial air transport, general aviation airplanes, and helicopters. It has been amended to include the mandate for the Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS) for all commercial aircraft from 2021 forward. This specifically includes the requirement that these aircraft must generate a tracking signal from which the position after a crash can be determined to within an accuracy of six nautical miles or better.

·           Annex 10:        Aeronautical Telecommunications

Among other things, this Annex mandates the carriage and use of the 406 MHz Emergency Locator Transmitter beacons (ELTs) that are detected and located by the Cospas-Sarsat System. It also contains the specifications for the AFTN (and AHMS) communications network.

·           Annex 11:        Air Traffic Services – Air Traffic Control Service, Flight Information Service and Alerting Service

This Annex describes the communications requirements associated with the flight of an aircraft, including specifically the alert communications that should be used in the event of a distress incident involving an aircraft.

·           Annex 12:        Search and Rescue

This Annex describes the obligations of various parties to provide assistance to any aircraft in distress.

 In 2015, in response to the disappearances of Air France flight 447 (over the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009) and of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 (over the Indian Ocean in March 2014), ICAO formed a special Multidisciplinary Meeting on Global Flight Tracking (MMGFT); this meeting decided on the need to develop a Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS) to prevent the occurrence of similar disasters in the future.

 The GADSS is being defined as a set of performance-based requirements, which are currently (in 2020) in the process of being defined by ICAO. In support of these anticipated requirements, the Cospas-Sarsat Programme is in the process of developing Distress Tracking ELTs: ELT(DT)s[1].