As the distress beacon is activated, it is picked-up by Geo and LEO satellites and relayed to all ground stations (known as LUTs: Local User Terminals) globally in real-time or later (Leo) as the satellite passes over different LUTs.

For Geo satellites, the distress alarm is provided to rescue agencies within 10 minutes from its activation. Here the main limitation is that the location information will not be available if the beacon is non-GPS, but the user identification with alert information will be made available. Therefore, it is recommended to go for GPS beacons.

In case of detection by Leo satellite, the distress unit may have to wait maximum of 240 minutes (as per the current satellite constellation – Jan 2006) near equator for a satellite to pass over distress area. Here, even without GPS, the system provides distress location using Doppler principle.

Once the beacon is detected at INMCC, it looks for registration information in the database (only for Indian beacons). If the beacon is registered, it will append the owner and emergency contacts to the distress message to be transmitted to nearest Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) for initiating SAR action.

If the beacon is not registered, rescue authorities may have to spend a lot of time to find owner/user information mainly through coordination with Indian regulatory authorities such as Director General of Shipping and Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), and sometimes through public database available on Internet. During distress, time is a very critical factor, every minute that you spend directly affect the potential lives at risk. Hence, registration of radio beacons with INMCC is in the interest of the user and very helpful for providing critical SAR support during crises/emergencies.  This also saves a lot of efforts, resources and budget while attending false distress calls.

In India, we have 4 designated RCCs operated by Airports Authority of India at 4 metro airports namely Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. These RCCs investigate distress signals coming from land area and carry out necessary coordination for SAR with resource agencies for potential distress situation.

For maritime distresses, there are 3 MRCCs (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres) under Indian Coast Guard situated at Chennai (South-East zone), Mumbai (Sestern Zone) and Port Blair (A&N Zone) covering entire Indian Maritime Search and Rescue area.

Indian MCC is connected to these RCCs and MRCCs by a dedicated communication Network known as “Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network (AFTN)” for transmission of distress alerts. The “Email” and “FTP”  are backup communication system being implemented.

The entire system at INMCC is automatic without manual intervention at any stage having redundancy built-in for critical systems. In addition to this, INMCC being a part of international system also receives distress alerts detected by external MCCs from Indian beacons as well as in Indian region. Hence there is no question of missing any alert as well any manual delay at INMCC.

For Indian beacons, detected outside India, INMCC receives the information through international Cospas-Sarsat network, and provides this information to MRCC Chennai, which in turn coordinates with international agencies for SAR outside India. INMCC also provides the owner/user contact information to the MCC concerned if the beacon is registered in INMCC database.

For all inadvertent beacon activations from ships, aircraft or person, RCCs/MRCCs warns/cautions the users to avoid such happening in future and to take extreme care while maintaining and handling life saving equipments. This is also informed to DG Shipping and DGCA for taking necessary action against those repeated transmitting false alarms.