AMC1 CAT.GEN.MPA.210 Location of an aircraft in distress — Aeroplanes

CAA ORS9 Decision No. 45

PERFORMANCE OF THE AIRBORNE SYSTEM, TRANSMISSION SERVICE, AND OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES

  1. Performance of the airborne system

    The airborne system is the organised set of airborne applications and airborne equipment used to comply with point CAT.GEN.MPA.210 and should:

    1. be approved in accordance with the applicable airworthiness requirements; and

    2. comply with the Certification Specifications for Airborne Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CS-ACNS) issued by the CAA, or equivalent.

  2. Transmission service

    If the airborne system relies on other equipment than emergency locator transmitters (ELTs) for transmitting the information needed to comply with point CAT.GEN.MPA.210, the provider of the transmission service should be a surveillance service provider that is certified in accordance with UK Regulation (EU) 2017/373 (the ‘ATM/ANS Regulation’).

  3. Flight crew procedures

    The operator should establish flight crew procedures for using the airborne system, including manual activation and manual deactivation of that system. These procedures should ensure that the flight crew manually activate the airborne system only if a search and rescue (SAR) response is needed or anticipated, and that they inform the relevant ATS unit in a timely manner when they manually deactivate or disable the airborne system to stop data transmission.

  4. Operator’s procedures

    The operator should establish procedures:

    1. for assessing whether an aircraft is likely to be in a state of emergency and

    2. for informing the designated ATS unit responsible for providing the alerting service in the airspace where the aircraft is believed to be:

      1. when a state of emergency is identified, and

      2. when a state of emergency no longer exists.

    3. for updating the operational contact details of the organisation within the OPS Control Directory.

  5. Limiting the effects of false alerts

    To reduce the frequency and effects of false alerts that are caused by the airborne system, the operator should:

    1. establish procedures for disabling any of the required functions of the airborne system;

    2. consider the airborne system inoperative if, during a flight, there were several occurrences of undesirable automatic activation of the airborne system; and

    3. analyse occurrences of undesirable (manual and automatic) activation of the airborne system to determine their probable cause; the records of such analyses should be retained for at least 12 months and provided to the CAA on request.