SE422
Search & Rescue Organization Management
Captain – Ibrahem Elsemsar
Captain - Ibrahem Elsemsar Term 7 1
Course Contents
• Week 1 – The importance of SAR services and
the global concept
• Week 2 – Legal Basis for SAR Services and
Obligations to Assist
• Week 3 – The Search& Rescue system
components
• Week 4 –The Search& Rescue system
management + Assessment
• Week 5 –Search& Rescue operations stages
• Week 6 – SAR Emergency Phases
• Week 7 – Assessment
• Week 8 – Search& Rescue communications
Captain - Ibrahem Elsemsar Term 7 2
Course Contents
• Week 9 – National and Regional SAR System
Organization
• Week 10 – The Guidelines for preparing plans
for co-operation between SAR
services and passenger ships + Assessment
• Week 11 – Determinations of Search& Rescue areas
• Week 12 – Assessment
• Week 13 – Search& Rescue techniques
• Week 14 – Training, qualifications, and certifications
• Week 15 – Search& Rescue on scene coordinator
exercise for ship masters
• Week 16 - Final Assessment
Captain - Ibrahem Elsemsar Term 7 3
Define the Search and rescue service?
'The performance of distress monitoring, communication, coordination and search
and rescue functions, including provision of medical advice, initial medical
assistance, or medical evacuation, through the use of public and private resources
including co-operating aircraft, vessels, and other crafts and installations’
(Regulation § 1.3.3 SAR Convention)
بما في ذلك تقديم المشورة، تنفيذ مهام متابعة االستغاثة واالتصال والتنسيق والبحث واإلنقاذ
من خالل استخدام الموارد العامة، أو اإلخالء الطبي، والمساعدة الطبية األولية، الطبية
. والوحدات والمنشآت االخرى، والخاصة بما في ذلك الطائرات والسفن المتعاونة
Captain - Ibrahem Elsemsar Term 7 4
What is the benefits of SAR service
Mainly reduction of loss of life and suffering by providing rescue services
BUT
The state’s concern and involvement with SAR may offer other advantages,
such as :
(a) A safer and more secure environment for aviation and maritime-related industries,
commerce, recreation, and travel. when the SAR system is associated with programs aimed at
preventing or reducing the effects of accidents ‘‘Preventive SAR.’’
(b) Availability of SAR resources often provides the initial response and relief capabilities critical
to saving lives in the early stages of natural and man-made disasters.
(c) Well-performed SAR operations can provide positive publicity about situations that may
otherwise be viewed negatively.
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What is the benefits of SAR service
(d) SAR provides an excellent means for promoting cooperation and communication among
States and between organizations at local, national, and international levels.
(e) The value of the property which can be saved in association with SAR activities can be high
and provide an additional good reason for SAR services.
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Tampa Incident
➢August 2001 – Norwegian ship ‘Tampa’ recovered
438 Afghans from a distressed Indonesian fishing
vessel in international waters.
➢Australian Coast Guard directed Tampa to divert
and provide assistance to small vessel
➢Survivors did not want to return to Indonesia
➢With concern for the safety of all, the ship headed
for Christmas Island (Australian Territory)
➢Australian Government refused ship access,
insisting on their dis-embarkment elsewhere.
➢Some Survivors started a hunger strike
➢Master ignored Australian refusal and entered
Australia
➢After boarding by the military, asylum seekers
processed in New Zealand and Nauru
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SOLAS and SAR Conventions 2004 amendments
78th session of the Maritime safety committee (MSC) adopted amendments to:
✓ Chapter V of SOLAS Convention
✓ Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of the Annex to (SAR Convention)
The purpose of these amendments
To help ensure that persons in distress are assisted, while minimizing the
inconvenience to assisting ships and ensuring the continued integrity of SAR
services.
مع تقليل اإلزعاج للسفن المشتركة فى عملية المساعدة، ضمان مساعدة األشخاص المعرضين للخطر
.وضمان استمرار نزاهة خدمات البحث واإلنقاذ
Captain - Ibrahem Elsemsar Term 7 8
SOLAS and SAR Conventions 2004 amendments
“ paragraph 1-1 of SOLAS regulation V/33 and paragraph 3.1.9 of the Annex to the
SAR Convention, as amended, impose upon Governments an obligation to co-
ordinate and co-operate to ensure that masters of ships providing assistance by
embarking persons in distress at sea are released from their obligations with
minimum further deviation from the ship’s intended voyage”.
Resolution MSC.167 (78)(2004)
وتفرض هذه التعديالت على الحكومات التزاما بالتنسيق والتعاون لضمان إعفاء ربابنة السفن التى قدمت
المساعدة بحمل األشخاص المنكوبين في البحر من التزاماتهم بعملية االنقاذ بأقل قدر ممكن من االنحراف
.)عن الرحلة المقصودة للسفينة (النزال االشخاص الذين تم انقاذهم
Captain - Ibrahem Elsemsar Term 7 9
SOLAS and SAR Conventions 2004 amendments
“ The intent of new paragraph 1-1 of SOLAS regulation V/33 and paragraph
3.1.9 of the Annex to the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue,
1979, as amended, is to ensure that in every case a place of safety is provided within
a reasonable time. The responsibility to provide a place of safety, or to ensure that a
place of safety is provided, falls on the Government responsible for the SAR region
in which the survivors were recovered”.
Resolution MSC.167 (78)(2004)
من ملحق3.1.9 والفقرةV / 33 من الئحة اتفاقية حماية األرواح في البحر رقم1-1 • القصد من الفقرات الجديدة
. هو ضمان توفير مكان آمن في كل حالة، بصيغتها المعدلة، 1979 االتفاقية الدولية للبحث واإلنقاذ البحري لعام
على عاتق الحكومة، أو ضمان توفير مكان آمن، تقع مسؤولية توفير مكان آمن.في غضون فترة زمنية معقولة
.المسؤولة عن منطقة البحث واإلنقاذ التي تم فيها انتشال الناجين
Captain - Ibrahem Elsemsar Term 7 10
• International law imposes an obligation to render assistance to people and
ships in distress at sea.
• This help must be provided regardless of the people's nationality or status or
the circumstances in which they find themselves.
• Rescue and disembarkation to a place of safety are complex operations
involving different actors with specific obligations under different bodies of
international law.
.• يفرض القانون الدولي التزا ًما بتقديم المساعدة لألشخاص والسفن المعرضة للخطر في البحر
• يجب تقديم هذه المساعدة بغض النظر عن جنسية األشخاص أو وضعهم أو الظروف التي يجدون
.أنفسهم فيها
• عمليات اإلنقاذ واخالئهم إلى مكان آمن هي عمليات معقدة تشارك فيها جهات فاعلة مختلفة لها
التزامات محددة بموجب هيئات مختلفة من القانون الدولي
Captain - Ibrahem Elsemsar Term 7 11
WHAT IS THE PLACE OF SAFETY?
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Legal Basis for SAR Services
Legal Framework
➢United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982, Article 98
➢SAR Convention, 1979, as amended
➢SOLAS Convention, 1974, as amended, chapter V, regulation33
➢Salvage Convention, 1983, Article 11
➢FAL Convention (Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic), 1965,
Section 6. C, Standards 6.8-6.10
➢IMO Global SAR Plan. SAR.8/Circ.1 and addenda addresses (the
Admiralty List of Radio Signals, Volume 5, is a practical alternative)
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Who are the Obligated Parties in
SAR service?
States Involved
Ship Masters
SAR Area
Flag States Coastal States
States
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What are the obligations Relating To SAR?
Mainly there are
THREE OBLIGATIONS
relating to rescue at sea
1 – Obligation to provide assistance to persons in
distress at sea.
2- Obligation to establish search and rescue
centers
3- Humanitarian obligations
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What is the legal basis for the Obligated parties to assist
persons in distress at sea?
Coastal States: ensure that assistance is provided to people in distress at sea.
“Parties shall ensure that necessary arrangements are made for the provision of adequate search and
rescue services for persons in distress at sea around their coasts”.
(Regulation § 2.1.1 SAR Convention)
SAR State: provide urgent assistance to individuals in distress at sea
“On receiving information that a person is in distress at sea in an area within which a Party provides
for the overall coordination of search and rescue operations, the responsible authorities of that Party
shall take urgent steps to provide the most appropriate assistance available”.
(Regulation § 2.1.9 SAR Convention)
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Ship’s master: give assistance to people in distress at sea except where this
leads to serious danger to the crew, the passengers, or the ship.
“The master of a ship at sea which is in a position to be able to provide assistance on receiving information from
any source that persons are in distress at sea, is bound to proceed with all speed to their assistance, if possible
informing them or the search and rescue service that the ship is doing so.
(SOLAS § Regulation 33(1)
Flag State: The flag State must ensure that the master has complied with his duty to
give assistance to people in distress at sea except where this leads to serious
danger to the crew, the passengers, or the ship.
“ 1. Every State shall require the master of a ship flying its flag, in so far as he can do so without serious danger to
the ship, the crew, or the passengers:
(a) to render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost;
(b) to proceed with all possible speed to the rescue of persons in distress, if informed of their need of assistance, in
so far as such action may reasonably be expected of him”
(UNCLOS § article 98 - 1 )
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What is the legal basis for the Obligated parties to
establish search and rescue centers?
Coastal States: Every state should put regulations that establish a legal basis for
establishing a SAR organization and its resources, policies, and
procedures.
“2- 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 sea and, where
circumstances so require, by way of mutual regional arrangements cooperate with neighboring States
for this purpose. ”
(UNCLOS § article 98 - 2)
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What is the legal basis for the Obligated parties to
establish search and rescue centers?
“ 1 Each Contracting Government undertakes to ensure that necessary arrangements are made
for distress communication and coordination in their area of responsibility and for the rescue of persons in
distress at sea around its coasts. These arrangements shall include the establishment, operation and
maintenance of such search and rescue facilities as are deemed practicable and necessary, having regard to the
density of the seagoing traffic and the navigational dangers, and shall, so far as possible, provide adequate
means of locating and rescuing such persons. ”
(SOLAS § Regulation 7 - 1)
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What is the legal basis for the Obligated parties to
establish search and rescue centers?
“ 2.1.2 Parties shall, either individually or in cooperation with other States, establish the following basic
elements of a search and rescue service,:
- legal framework;
- assignment of a responsible authority;
- organization of available resources;
- communication facilities;
- co-ordination and operational functions; and
- processes to improve the service including planning, domestic and international co-operative relationships,
and training. ”
(Regulation § 2.1.2 SAR Convention)
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What is the legal basis for the Obligated parties about
Humanitarian obligations?
All Parties: Search and rescue operations should be conducted free of charge and
with the intent to save human lives, which is considered to be a basic
moral responsibility of one human to another, to save his life.
“ The objectives were to help ensure that:
.1 survivors of distress incidents are provided assistance regardless of nationality or status or the
circumstances in which they are found;
.2 ships, which have retrieved persons in distress at sea, are able to deliver the survivors to a place of safety;
and
.3 survivors, regardless of nationality or status, including undocumented migrants, asylum seekers, and
refugees, and stowaways, are treated, while on board, in the manner prescribed in the relevant IMO
instruments and in accordance with relevant international agreements and long-standing humanitarian
maritime traditions. ”
IMO Assembly resolution A.920(22)
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