On 2nd March the EGNOS Safety-of-Life signal was formally declared available to aviation, according to a report from the European Space Agency (ESA). For the first time, space-based navigation signals have become officially usable for the critical task of vertically guiding aircraft during landing approaches.

It was announced from Apeldoorn in The Netherlands on 2nd March that HITT NV, supplier of traffic management, hydrographic and navigation systems for aviation and shipping were in exclusive discussions with the owners of IVS 3D with the objective to merge their activities with the hydrographic division of HITT.

Within the Action Plan to promote this year’s World Maritime Day theme ?
Piracy: Orchestrating the Response, a meeting took place at IMO Headquarters on
17th February between IMO Secretary-General Admiral Efthimios E. Mitropoulos
and industry and seafarer representatives. All re-iterated the need for urgent and co-ordinated action from Governments, the shipping industry and the maritime community to address the escalating crisis of kidnap and ransom of seafarers off the coast of Somalia, in the Gulf of Aden, in the Arabian Sea and in the western Indian Ocean.

The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) announced in late February that the IASC Medal for 2011 will be awarded to Professor Martin Jakobsson.

Martin Jakobsson represents a new generation of Arctic scientists for whom multinational and cross-disciplinary science comes naturally. His view that data should be open and accessible for all research is part of his success as illustrated by the wide use of the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO). This chart is fundamental to understanding of the Arctic, and has been cited in several thousand publications in areas such as oceanography, tectonics and palaeo-climate.

The International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) has welcomed the announcement by the International Chamber of Shipping (an affiliate member
of IUMI) that it is now taking a more neutral position on the use of private armed security personnel on board ships to protect them from pirates. This is precisely the stance adopted by IUMI, which announced in January that it was up to individual insurers whether to provide cover for ships and operators if private armed guards were employed on board.

At 1153 Western Standard Time on 3rd October 2009, the pilot of an Air Tractor Inc. 502 aircraft, registered VH-ODP, took off from an agricultural airstrip on a property about 5 km north-east of Wickepin, Western Australia to conduct agricultural spraying operations.

A short time later, the owner of the property discovered the wreckage of
the aircraft, which had impacted the ground in an inverted attitude, fatally
injuring the pilot.

The investigation did not identify any organisational or systemic issues
that might adversely affect the future safety of aviation operations.

The Brussels-based European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation Organisation (EUROCONTROL) announced early in February that in the year since it was signed, PENS – the Pan European Network Services Services – initiative has achieved two major milestones.

The first milestone has seen all European Air Database (EAD) services migrated from a dedicated IP network to PENS.

The second important milestone achieved at the end of 2010 was the agreement to create a dedicated PENS infrastructure to support the validation of Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR).

The International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) announced on 21st February that as a result of its collaboration with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the latest (2011-2012) edition of The ICAO Emergency Response Guidance Manual (ERG) has been published.

‘Red Book’, as the ERG is known, is the industry’s standard guide for
aircraft incidents involving dangerous goods, and contains general information on the factors that may need to be considered when dealing with such incidents.

The Hon. Jason Clare, MP., Australian Minister for Defence Materiel addressed the Australian Defence Magazine Conference at the Hyatt Hotel, Canberra, on 16th February.

Conference had the theme, ‘A Big Year Ahead’. Inter alia the Minister said, ‘In the Air Force we will take delivery of the final nine Boeing F18 Super Hornets; and work towards Initial Operating Capability on Wedgetail, the Airborne Early Warning & Control [AEW&C] aircraft.

At about 0935 Papua New Guinea local time on 26th September 2010, a Cessna Company T210L aircraft, registered VH-LMT, was being operated on a private, visual flight rules, flight from Tufi to Gurney, Papua New Guinea with the pilot and four passengers on board. When the aircraft was about 46 km north-east of Gurney, the engine lost power and the pilot conducted a ditching into shallow water adjacent to a beach. The aircraft was reported to have sustained minor damage and none of the occupants were injured.

Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Sperry Marine business unit supplied the navigation, communications and safety systems for Royal Caribbean’s newest cruise ship, Allure of the Seas, which just completed hers maiden voyage from the yard in Finland to home port of Port Everglades, Florida.

Local authorities in the United Kingdom will be given greater control over how their roads appear on maps and satellite navigation systems, it was announced in February by Local and Regional Transport Minister, Norman Baker, as part of bureaucracy-cutting proposals.

The annual number of passengers worldwide will increase from 2.5 billion to 5 billion over the next 20 years and the number of flights from 26 million to 50 million, Raymond Benjamin, Secretary General of ICAO told a luncheon in Canada on 17th February. The major challenge for the air transport sector will be to manage this sustained growth and, at the same time, improve the safety, security and sustainability of civil aviation.

Adoption of a roadmap by 14 ICAO Member States to further protect global air transport from terrorist and other security threats was praised by the Secretary General of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Raymond Benjamin, at the conclusion of a two-day regional aviation security conference in
New Delhi on 15th February.

At the end of January three Military Sealift Command ships discharged hundreds of pieces of US Marine Corps equipment, containerized supplies and personnel in support of exercises Freedom Banner and Cobra Gold at Chuk Samet, Thailand.

Freedom Banner 2011 brought together multiple commands to offload Maritime Prepositioning Force ships USNSs 1st Lt Jack Lummus and 1st Lt Harry L Martin while both ships were anchored three miles offshore.

A powered lighterage module is offloaded from the Maritime Prepositioning Force ship USNS 1st Lt Jack Lummus more than three miles off the coast of Chuk Samet, Thailand, on 20th January, while conducting Exercise Freedom Banner 2011. The module is powered by a jet propulsion system and attaches to two other modules which are then used to ferry cargo ashore. The equipment offloaded from Lummus will be deployed by Marines for their portion of Exercise Cobra Gold 2011, scheduled to be held in early February.

(US Navy photo by Ed Baxter, SEALOGFE Public Affairs.)

It was announced from Naples in mid-January that the Military Sealift Command’s oceanographic survey ship USNS Henson completed her eight-month deployment to the US 6th Fleet area of responsibility. She spent 163 days on station and conducted survey operations in the Norwegian Sea and the Gulf of Guinea. The ship, its crew of civilian mariners, and an embarked team of 29 oceanographers, historians, underwater archaeologists and researchers, also participated in the most recent search off the coast of England for the Revolutionary warship Bonhomme Richard, captained by John Paul Jones when it was lost at sea in 1799.

At about 0945 (GMT), on 10th February a Swearingen SA-227 Metroliner (Spanish registration EC-ITP), operated by Flightline/Manx2 Air as flight 7100 from Belfast, Northern Ireland, crashed after attempting a landing at Cork Airport, Cork, Ireland. Twelve people were aboard the aircraft, and there are reports of both fatalities and survivors.

The National Transportation Safety Board reported later that day that it was sending three investigators to assist the Government of Ireland as it investigates the crash.

Electronic navigation specialist MARIS and training company Seagull have reached an agreement to develop a comprehensive product-specific computer-based training ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and Information System) module, it was reported at the end of January.

In order to replace paper charts, ECDIS systems must fulfil considerable technical requirements laid down in the IMO ECDIS Performance Standards. New requirements for competence and training have been amended in the STCW convention. As well as including approved ECDIS simulator training, the standard opens up wider delivery sources of training, including onboard instruction.

It was reported on 11th February that members of the Italian Coast Guard have gathered at ESA to attend an advanced training workshop on the latest space technologies for maritime monitoring and surveillance and to identify future opportunities for collaboration. ESA and the Italian Coast Guard have been collaborating for nearly 20 years on satellite-based services for vessel and oil pollution surveillance in the Mediterranean as well as in international waters.

On 8th February the International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations (IFALPA), the global voice of airline pilots, issued its Vision Statement entitled ‘The Future of Air Navigation’.

This document considers ICAO’s role and the role of governments; the roles of the air navigation service providers and that of the aviation industry.

United Kingdom-based, marine security specialist company, Photonic Security Systems (PSS) launch a new proactive pirate defence system, the LDS100, earlier this month.

The LDS100 acts in what is said to be a non-lethal and humane manner and is based on a proactive method to prevent pirates from approaching a ship. The system works by sending a ten metre wide multi-band laser light beam, up to a distance of one kilometre to dazzle potential intruders and disable them from locating and boarding the ship.

On 31st January it was reported by ESA that Israel had signed a Coperation Agreement, the objective of which is to allow Israel and ESA to create the framework for more-intensive co-operation in ESA projects in the future.

At the end of last year HM King Mohammed VI of Morocco inaugurated the Tangier maritime traffic control centre (MTCS) established at a costs of Dirhams 50 million ($ 6 million). The new installation, provided by SOFRELOG, will contribute to improving the maritime traffic efficiency and protection of the
environment in the Gibraltar Strait.

A new railway section linking the Spanish and French networks opened at the end
of January today thanks to about € 70 million in European Union funding.

The 44.4 km Perpignan-Figueras railway section is suitable for both high-speed rail and freight transport and is expected to significantly cut journey times.

On 4th February the NTSB reported that it had made the following new safety recommendations to the US Coast Guard.