Aircraft Casualties at Sea
	(1) Aircraft/ship communications 1.1 When an aircraft transmits a distress message by radio, the first transmission is generally made on the designated air/ground route frequency in use at the time between the aircraft and aeronautical station. The aircraft may change to another frequency, possibly another route frequency or the international aeronautical emergency frequencies of 121.5 MHz or 243 MHz. In an emergency, it may use any other available frequency to establish contact with any land, mobile or direction-finding station. 1.2 There is liaison between CRS, aeronautical units, and land-based search and rescue organizations. Merchant ships will ordinarily be informed of aircraft casualties at sea by broadcast messages from CRS made on the international distress frequencies of 500 kHz, 2,182 kHz or 156.8 MHz (VHF channel 16). Ships may, however, become aware of the casualty by receiving: .1 an SOS message from an aircraft in distress which is able to transmit on 500 kHz or a distress signal from an aircraft using radiotelephony on 2,182 kHz or 156.8 MHz (VHF channel 16); .2 a radiotelegraphy distress signal on 500 kHz from a hand-operated emergency transmitter carried by some aircraft; .3 a message from a SAR aircraft. 1.3 For the purpose of emergency communications with aircraft, special attention is called to the possibility of conducting direct communications on 2,182 kHz or 156.8 MHz (VHF channel 16), if both ship and aircraft carry compatible VHF equipment. (2) Distress signals 2.1 An aircraft in distress will use any means at its disposal to attract attention, make known its position and obtain help, including some of the signals prescribed by the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. (3) Action taken to render assistance if aircraft is still airborne 3.1 Aircraft usually sink quickly (e.g. within a few minutes). Every endeavour will be made to give ships an accurate position of an aircraft which desires to ditch. When given such a position, a ship should at once consult any other ships in the vicinity on the best procedure to be adopted. The ship going to the rescue should answer the station sending the broadcast and give its identity, position and intended action. 3.2 If a ship should receive a distress message direct from an aircraft, it should act as indicated in the immediately preceding paragraph and also relay the message to the nearest CRS. Moreover, a ship which has received a distress message direct from an aircraft and is going to the rescue should take a bearing on the transmission and inform the CRS and other ships in the vicinity of the call sign of the distressed aircraft and the time at which the distress message was received, followed by the bearing and time at which the signal ceased. 3.3 When an aircraft decides to ditch in the vicinity of a ship, the ship should: .1 transmit homing bearings to the aircraft, or (if so requested) transmit signals enabling the aircraft to take its own bearings; .2 by day, make black smoke; .3 by night, direct a searchlight vertically and turn on all deck lights. Care must be taken not to direct a searchlight towards the aircraft, which might dazzle the pilot. 3.4 Ditching an aircraft is difficult and dangerous. A ship which knows that an aircraft intends to ditch should be prepared to give the pilot the following information: .1 wind direction and force; .2 direction, height and length of primary and secondary swell systems; .3 other pertinent weather information.
	3.5 The pilot of an aircraft will choose his own ditching heading. If this is known by the ship, it should set course parallel to the ditching heading. Otherwise, the ship should set course parallel to the main swell system and into the wind component, if any, as shown in figure opposite.
	(4) Rescue action 4.1 A land plane may break up immediately on striking the water and liferafts may be damaged. The ship should, therefore, have a lifeboat ready for launching, and if possible, boarding nets should be lowered from the ship and heaving lines made ready in the ship and lifeboat. Survivors on the aircraft may have bright coloured lifejackets and location aids. 4.2 The method of recovering survivors must be left to the judgement of the Master of the ship carrying out the rescue operation. 4.3 It should be borne in mind that military aircraft are often fitted with ejection seat mechanisms. Normally, their aircrew will use their ejection seats, rather than ditch. Should such an aircraft ditch, rather than the aircrew bale out, and it becomes necessary to remove them from their ejection seats while still in the aircraft, care should be taken to avoid triggering off the seat mechanisms. The activating handles are invariably indicated by red or black/yellow colouring. (5) Questioning survivors 5.1 A survivor from an aircraft casualty who is recovered may be able to give information which will assist in the rescue of other survivors. Masters are therefore asked to put the following questions to survivors and to communicate the answers to a CRS. They should also give the position of the rescuing ship and the time when the survivors were recovered. 1 What was the time and date of the casualty? 2 Did you hale out or was the aircraft ditched? 3 If you baled out, at what altitude? 4 How many others did you see leave the aircraft by parachute? 5 How many ditched with the aircraft? 8 How many did you see leave the aircraft after ditching? 7 How many survivors did you see in the water? 8 What flotation gear had they? 9 What was the total number of persons aboard the aircraft prior to the accident? 10 What caused the emergency?
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