EMSA supports global SAR LRIT training with IMSO and COMPAAz Brazil

Approximately 600 search and rescue operators from all around the world attended a special training session on the functions and use of the Long-Range Identification and Tracking system (LRIT), organised by the International Mobile Satellite Organisation (IMSO) in collaboration with EMSA and the Brazilian Maritime Operations and Protection of the Blue Amazon Command (COMPAAz).

The aim of the training was to enable Search and Rescue Operators worldwide to effectively utilise the LRIT system to facilitate their essential work in saving lives at sea.

Opening the training session, the Executive Director of EMSA, Maja Markovčić Kostelac, underlined that EMSA hosts and maintains the European Union Cooperative Data Centre, now the largest such centre in the LRIT system, as well as the LRIT International Data Exchange, which connects 71 data centres worldwide, 135 contracting governments and territories, and three naval forces.

“EMSA has proved to be a reliable partner in this domain,” Ms. Markovčić Kostelac stressed, “contributing to the development of the LRIT system here in the EU and worldwide.”

The LRIT International Data Exchange can broadcast SAR requests to all LRIT Data Centres in case of emergency, providing SAR services with a complete maritime picture of all ships in the vicinity of a distress call. This service is free of charge to the Contracting Government’s SAR services for any ship, no matter where it is located, via the LRIT International Data Exchange.