Shipping Could

Learn From Aircraft Control

From Gus Smales Procedure governing the mon ment of small shipping in the wati of Papua-New Guinea has be generally tightened following t loss in November of the 35 ft co verted naval pinnace “Marguerii (“PIM”, Dec., p. 139). But it i doubtful if it still goes far enoui ONE of the biggest air and s searches in the history of t Territory failed to find ai trace of the launch or of its thr occupants, Mr. and Mrs. Eric Goo son, of Manus Island, and IV William Darcy Hughes.

Marguerite was on the Cooktow Port Moresby leg of a voyage fro Australia to Manus Island win she disappeared. Her last rad message was on November 9 whi she reported being 150 miles SS of Port Moresby—about one di out.

The search, however, did n start until November 28 when tl worried relatives of the crew g in touch with port authorities 1 Australia and subsequently Papua.

Aircraft, ships and waterfrd parties in the Gulf area of Papi then conducted a vast search, bi without success.

There was naturally sod criticism of the circumstana which allowed 18 days to elan between the launch’s estimatj time of arrival at Port Mores and the organisation of the seara

Shipping Procedure Too Casual

In all fairness, however, it mu be pointed out that the general casual attitude of P-NG shippii operators—private and commerci —is largely to blame in creatii such circumstances.

Drawing a comparison with ai: craft operations, for instance, tl situation has been very haphazaa The communications procedure wit aircraft in Papua-New Guinea, I laid down by the Australian IX partment of Civil Aviation, leav( no loop-holes either for missing a emergency or for falsely assumiD an emergency.

Broadly speaking, it works as fo! lows: Before take-off, air traffic contn must be notified in full of the fligh plan. Once in flight, the aircrai must report by radio at least ever 40 minutes, giving a position (witJ a visual sight where am a report indicating normality o

itions. Where possible, crews their reports every half-hour, 0 minutes is the maximum per ble silence. a report has not been received n a 40-minute period, the con ng ground station starts call ,he aircraft. If no reply is re d other aircraft and ground ms in the vicinity are notified nd out a call and give reports, the position is still negative 10 minutes, an “uncertainty 3” is declared. Search and gency organisations are noti a later time, as governed by mstances, an “alert phase” is red, and the initial activation search and rescue plan is made, mtually, a “distress phase” is red, and the search and rescue goes into full operation. b point to bear in mind is that lircraft’s radio equipment and irocedure outlined above are so rtant and so strongly enforced a small radio fault can ground ircraft just as surely as can ack of an engine. 3 situation is much different shipping. Coastal radio stations low operating regular contacts ships every 12 hours, which irs to be a quite satisfactory lag when coupled with a con us emergency listening watch. : the weakness of the present n lies in the fact that the failure of a ship to answer its lurly call does not cause a is situation.

They Forget the Time

ly too often, as any coastal operator will verify, failure iswer a call can simply mean nobody on the ship has re ared the time, so the radio t turned on; (b) the skipper e ship is having a sleep while ative quartermaster attends to feering: or (c) the ship has into port unannounced and ;rew has gone home for the ;re are two major evils from haphazard approach to coni zations. The first one is that a real emergency is occurring 1 be overlooked only too easily, second is the wastage and in nience caused by searching ship which is, in fact, safely >red in an un-notified position, addition, shore stations may r e a genuine emergency call arlier routine reports may have so haphazard that there is information on which to base nergency plan.

Tightened Up

; main feature of the tighten f procedure which has followed dss of the launch Marguerite rns the notification to shore Tities of sailing plans, reased responsibility will also

now fall on shore stations in fol lowing the movements of ships.

But in the interests of navigation, safety, and plain economics, a strong code of procedure should be implemented and most rigorously applied.

The captain of an aircraft is a lucky man if he doesn’t lose his job over delay in making a con tact. The same should apply in coastal shipping.

In addition, radio equipment on ships should be regularly and

stringently surveyed.

But above all, whatever code is introduced should carry penalties for infringement and the penalties must be enforced. This is the only answer.