SATELLITE APPLICATION IN

SEARCH AND RESCUE OPERATIONS

Presented by Group 4
Basavaraj A G
Kishore P M

13CV112
13CV124
G Suresh

13CV122
Rahul G P
13CV235

INTRODUCTION

Of all remote sensing

applications, there may
be no other that touches
the heart as much as
saving another life
through search and
rescue. Hundreds of
satellites orbit the Earth
each day. Each one has
its own live-saving
ability but only if its in
the right time and place.

BEFORE

1970s

Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs)

Operating at the international distress frequency of
121.5 MHz

Emitted a low-power signal that could be picked up

by a receiver in another aircraft in the vicinity or in a
nearby air traffic control tower.
Difficult to sense the signals in remote areas.

Emergency Beacons

AFTER

1970s

The design of the Cospas-Sarsat system was begun

Search and rescue satellites were designed
Special ground receiving stations, called local user terminals (LUTs) were
developed and installed
Then first search and rescue satellite was launched in 1982
There after the first rescue operation was done by saving 3 people .

LETS SEE HOW THE SEARCH AND

RESCUING OPERATION IS DONE

COSPAS-SARSAT

low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites are used

Developed distress beacon operating at 406 MHz instead of
121.5MHz.

Started evaluating the use of geostationary-Earth-orbit (GEO)

satellites

The satellite travels in

this plane while the earth
rotates underneath it, enabling
a single satellite to eventually
view the entire Earth's
surface. At most, it takes only
one-half rotation of the Earth
(i.e. 12 hours) for any location
to pass under the orbital
plane.

CASE STUDY

Marine Accident
Sinking of Fishing Vessel Capt Richie
Rich

Probable Cause

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable

cause of the sinking of fishing vessel Capt Richie Rich was a collapse of
the port outrigger and a hull penetration resulting in uncontrolled flooding
in the engine room.

National Transportation Safety Board

Accident no. DCA15LM033

Accident type :Sinking

Date August 30, 2015

Country : USA
State : Los Angeles, Convent city
Vessel name : Capt Richie Rich (former names: Lady Ingeborg and Gulf
Challenger)
Location : 10 nautical miles (nm) southwest of Point au Fer, Louisiana;
2915.0N, 9132.0W

Time 2200 central daylight time (coordinated universal time 5 hours)

Injuries : None
Property damage : Loss of vessel over 100 gross tons
Environmental damage : Oil sheen sighted, potential release of 4,000
gallons of diesel fuel and unknown quantity of lube oil
Weather : South winds at 12 knots, seas at 4 feet, air temperature 83F,
water temperature 84F
Waterway information : Atchafalaya Bay, Gulf of Mexico

About 2200 on the evening of August 30, 2015, the uninspected fishing
vessel Capt Richie Rich was under way and trawling for shrimp in coastal
waters about 10 nm southwest of Point au Fer, Louisiana, when the port
outrigger broke and holed the vessels hull.

The breach allowed water to enter the engine room, causing the vessel to
list to starboard. It later sank partially in 12 feet of water.

The three crewmembers, who abandoned the vessel into a liferaft, were
rescued by the US Coast Guard; no one was injured. An oil sheen was
observed in the area where the vessel sank.

The crewmembers launched two liferafts and abandoned the Capt Richie
Rich, taking with them the vessels emergency position indicating radio
beacon (EPIRB).

They then fired about 10 emergency flares, with no immediate sign of

detection.

After tying the liferaft to the Capt Richie Rich, the crewmembers waited
for rescue.

Based on their recount of events, they attempted to activate the EPIRB;

however, no EPIRB alerts were received by the Eighth Coast Guard
District command center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

It was later determined that the crewmembers did not properly activate
the EPIRB. Rather than turning on the beacon and leaving it activated,
they were turning the device on and then off.

At 11.54 am on August 31, 2015, the crew on a passing

commercially operated helicopter spotted both the liferaft
and the partially sunken Capt Richie Rich and reported the
situation to the Coast Guard.

In response, the Coast Guard launched a short-range

recovery helicopter (MH-65 Dolphin) crew from Coast Guard
Air Station New Orleans and diverted a nearby 29-foot-long
small response boat (RB-S) from Marine Safety Unit (MSU)
Morgan City.

A Good Samaritan vessel arrived on scene and located the

survivors after they fired off another flare. Later, the RB-S
crew safely rescued the three crewmembers who were
subsequently transported to Morgan City.

Red dots indicate the approximate location of Capt

Richie Rich. (Background from National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] chart 11340)

Case Study-2
Raytheon U-125(Hawker 800)

 Raytheon U-125(Hawker 800)

A British Aerospace U-125 of the Japan Air Self-Defence Force was destroyed
in an accident in mountainous terrain near Kanoya Air Base, Japan with 6
persons on board.

The aircraft was attached to the Hiko Tenkentai Flight Check Squadron based
at Iruma Air Base.

The accident plane took off from Iruma at 08:49 for a check flight to Kanoya
Air Base, and after planned check at Kanoya in the morning, it landed at
Kanoya at 12:06.

After refueling, the plane took off at 13:15, and performed the remaining
check of the JAT TACAN.

At 14:31, the plane began the 'alignment orbit check' following a low
pass over runway 08R.

In this check, the plane lost radar contact while flying an anti-clock-wise
6nm arc with an altitude of 3000 feet after climbing from 2500 feet.

The wreckage was found by a search party of Japan Grand Self-Defense

Force on 7th April on Ontake peak of Mt. Takakuma, which has an
elevation of 1182m (3875 feet).

At the time of the accident, the captain acted as Pilot Not Flying and
F/O was Pilot Flying.

A GPWS warning sounded 12 seconds before the crash, however, the

warning was switched off 2 seconds before the crash without any
avoidance maneuvers.

The cause of the accident was continued flight until the crash on 6nm
arc from Kanoya JAT TACAN with an altitude of 3000 feet.

 The factors of the accident were:

I.
II.

PIC's misidentification on the heights of mountains under the planned

flight path.

visual obscuration near and/or in the clouds after climbing from 2500
feet to 3000 feet.
III. no adequate repsonse to the GPWS warning.
IV. A contribution factor of insufficient supervision to the flight plan is
also identified.

 Raytheon U-125(Hawker 800)

Case Study 3
Antarctic cruise ship Orion

Antarctic cruise ship Orion

This was happened in January 2013

Antarctic cruise ship Orion successfully recovered a sailor who had spent 56 hours
in a life raft in the Southern Ocean

The recovery operation took only one hour but entire rescue operation took for
nearly 3 days

Involved five aircraft that maintained near-continuous communication with the

sailor while Orion made its way towards the life raft.

Path of the

After making contact with the sailor, he declared that he is

not in the distress.

AMSA (Australian Maritime Safety Authority) advised him to

head towards Hobart, Tasmania.

Hours later AMSA detected an emergency beacon activation

from the sailor 500 nautical miles south west of Hobart at
which point AMSA issued a broadcast to the Orion.

This particular case highlights the difficulties SAR (Search

And Rescue) forces encounter with on-scene
communications in order to complete rescue operations.

When the cruise ship Orion got to within a mile of the life
raft, it still had to be guided to the life raft's location by
smoke and light floats that were dropped on-scene by a
RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) Hercules aircraft.

 the sailor in distress had an EPIRB (Emergency Position

Indicating Radio Beacon) that transmitted a distress radio

signal on two frequencies: homing signal at 121.5 MHz and
distress alert signal at 406 MHz

the 121.5 MHz could be received by near-by rescue RAAF

plane, but not by the cruise ship Orion

the Orion could transmit and receive AIS signals, had an

EPIRB for distress, and had radio communications

equipment to communicate in the maritime frequency band
(156-162 MHz)

o Satellite AIS data from exact Earth was able to play an

integral role in this operation

o AMSA was able to quickly act to alert the Orion to help

facilitate the rescue by collecting up to date picture of
the area around the distress signal

THANK YOU