GRICAS Operational Concept Workshop

The second workshop of the GRICAS Project (Galileo Search and Rescue Return Link Improvement for a better Civil Aviation Safety) took place last 12th and 13th of July at PildoLabs premises. GRICAS is a European Commission Horizon 2020 Project that aims at designing a future end-to-end Demonstration and performance evaluation of in-flight activation of Search and Rescue (SAR) beacons on-board aircrafts based on Cospas-Sarsat and Galileo Return-Link to improve safety and security of air navigation. This demonstration will be coordinated by PildoLabs.

The workshop, gathered representatives from Air Europa airline, ASECNA, ELTA, CNES, and TAS France and aimed to address the management of distress alert by the ground operation.

During the event, main scenarios and responsibilities from the different ground entities in the management of associated distress events (RCC, MCC, airlines, aviation authorities, among others) were identified and discussed in detail.

Attendees pointed out the interest of strengthening the links between COSPAS/SARSAT entities (MCC, RCC, Return-Link Service Provider) and aviation domain entities (ATC, airlines, etc) through the development of SWIM interfaces for faster access and delivery of information.

The modernization of COSPAS-SARSAT system makes it the most relevant solution to answer to new ICAO requirement for in-flight triggerable ELT and autonomous distress tracking. The functionalities of the ELT(DT) proposed in GRICAS provide answers to all recent events, from AF447 to MH370 and MS804, thanks to multiple triggers defined and the triggering reactions to inhibitions developed. The workshop addressed all these scenarios and identified the responsibilities of the different ground entities in the management of associated distress events (RCC, MCC, airlines, aviation authorities, …). Finally, the workshop pointed out the interest of strengthening the links between Cospas/Sarsat entities (MCC, RCC, Return-Link Service Provider) and aviation domain entities (ATC, airlines, …) through the development of SWIM interfaces for faster access and delivery of information.

The discussions held during the workshop were very positive, as they contributed to define the most important aspects to be considered in the development of the Project.

Download GRICAS-ExecutiveSummary