Report on the second planning and organizational meeting for the Sixth
Meeting of the International Committee on GNSS (ICG), Vienna, 7th June 2011

The website for the 6th ICG Meeting is available under www.icg2011.go.jp.

All the ICG-6 participants should have registered online by 15th July 2011.

Participants wishing to give a presentation during the first plenary
session are requested to submit the titles of their presentations by 30th
July 2011.

Air cargo security – From Montreal on 27th June it was announced that ICAO and the World Customs Organization (WCO) had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for increased co-operation to protect air cargo from acts of terrorism or other criminal activity and for speeding up the movement of goods by air worldwide.

Aviation safety information – On 15th June the Council of ICAO adopted a code of conduct to oversee the collection, sharing and use of aviation safety information, in support of the Organization’s ongoing drive to further improve safety worldwide.

Fatigue risk management – The Council of ICAO adopted at its meeting of 13th June international standards for Fatigue Risk Management Systems (FRMS) as an alternative to prescriptive flight and duty limitations to address crew fatigue, often cited as a factor in aircraft accidents. The new standards become applicable on 15th December this year.

Shortly after noon on 14th July the Secretary of State for Transport, Philip Hammond, gave HMG’s updated Coastguard reforms. Broadly speaking it is Westminster’s belief that Coastguard stations will be better coordinated and more resilient to the challenges of the coming decades under the updated modernisation proposals.

In his statement the Minister said the Coastguard has been helping to manage our seas and protect those who use them for over two centuries. However, the service has undergone few changes over the past 40 years and is now in need of modernisation as the current structure is not sufficiently resilient and fluctuating workloads cannot be properly distributed.

Pirate attacks on the world’s seas totalled 266 in the first six months of 2011, up from 196 incidents in the same period last year, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) revealed on 14th July simultaneously in London and Kuala Lumpur.

More than 60% of the attacks were by Somali pirates, a majority of which were in the Arabian Sea area said the report, Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships. As of 30th June, Somali pirates were holding 20 vessels and 420 crew, and demanding ransoms of millions of dollars for their release.

The new access fairway to the Swedish Port of Norrköping was inaugurated on 9th June amid numerous key personalities including the Swedish Minister for Infrastructure. These works, which now enable 24-hour access to the port and its new intermodal terminal, began in 2009 and benefitted from €3.5 million in EU co-financing from the TEN-T budget, managed through the TEN-T Executive Agency.

Commission requests nine Member States to comply with EU vessel traffic monitoring and information system regime

It was announced from Brussels on 16th June that the European Commission has requested Belgium, Estonia, France, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Finland and the United Kingdom to adopt national legislation to implement EU rules setting up a vessel traffic monitoring and information system.

According to a statement issued by the European Commission in mid-June ministers are expected to reach a general agreement (known as a ‘general approach’) on a proposal modifying the mandate of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) to enable it to deal with new challenges in an ever-changing world.

MonaLisa, an EU co-funded project

The MonaLisa project, an action in the Baltic Sea region aimed at improving the quality of maritime transport, will benefit from €11.23 million in EU contribution from the 2010 TEN-T Multi-Annual Call, it was announced by the EC on 15th June.

MonaLisa aims at improving quality of maritime transport, safety at sea, exchange of maritime data and facilitation of environmental performance of shipping and implementation of e-Maritime relevant applications.

An invitation has been issued by the Danaish Maritime Safety Administration (DAMSA) for the Third and final EfficienSea Major Event arranged with the Estonian Maritime Administration and to be held in Tallinn, Estonia on 21st and 22nd September this year.

The EfficienSea project started in January 2009. Now almost three years have passed the organisers have called for fresh input and focus in order to make the most out of the project.

On 21st September, the respective themes of the project will be:

• Recruitment and Competences
• e-Navigation
• Maritime Planning and Vessel Traffic Data
• Dynamic Risk Management

These topics will be presented by the work package leaders.

From all corners of the globe, submarine rescue specialists, parachuting diving teams, engineers and military doctors gathered in Spain to prove rescue systems and procedures that have been developed to rescue submariners from the worst case scenarios at the end of May. Over the period from 27th May to 10th June the world’s experts in sub sunk operations were concentrated off the Spanish port of Murcia in the Mediterranean to improve their response capability. ESPS Galicia, the Spanish Navy’s command ship, steamed from Cartagena to take part.

On 21st and 22nd September the EfficienSea project is arranging the third and final open conference hosted by the Estonian Maritime Administration, presenting results of the project.

After a successful 2011 conference with more than 130 participants from 21 countries, the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) and the EfficienSea project with the support of the Nautical Institute and the International Association for Marine Electronics’ Companies (CIRM) have decided to repeat the event next year.

The European Space Agency, Arianespace and the European Commission announced on 23rd May that the launch of the first two satellites of Europe’s global navigation satellite system is planned to take place on 20 October.

This will be the first of a series of Galileo satellite launches by
Arianespace from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

The deadline for registration is June 1, 2011. Please do read the PDF, as it includes all the pertinent details and links.

An advance warning has been received from the Royal Institute of Navigation that the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich will be the venue on 22nd and 23rd March next year for a symposium with the title After Longitude – Modern Navigation in Context.

Following a successful meeting last year, the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Institute of Navigation are planning a second symposium to bring together current research in the history of navigation. It is understood the symposium will explore the wider impact of the discovery of longitude and the ways in which navigation has evolved since then. In particular it will aim to investigate the connections between navigational advances and the development of exploration, surveying, commerce and Empire from the 19th century to the present.

Towards the end of May the British Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) issued a report into accidents occurring to a high speed ferry in March and August last year.

A significant milestone was achieved earlier this month proving the capability of the British Army’s Apache helicopter to operate and strike from the sea. Cannon and Hellfire missiles were successfully fired against seaborne targets in a long planned exercise near Gibraltar early in May.

Britain’s Armed Forces officially end operation in Iraq in the coming days, with the conclusion of a Royal Navy mission to train Iraqi sailors – It was announced on 22nd May by the MoD Press Office that the UK/Iraq Training and Maritime Support Agreement has come to an end marking the conclusion of Operation TELIC – the name for UK operations in Iraq that began with the invasion and subsequent removal of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

UK combat forces, primarily based in the southern city of Basrah, withdrew from Iraq in July 2009 but since then, at the request of the Iraqi Government, the Royal Navy has continued to train the Iraqi Navy to defend its territorial waters and offshore oil infrastructure.

British forces have been involved in this important task since 2003. Royal Navy personnel have worked alongside US forces to train and mentor Iraqi sailors and marines at their main naval base in Umm Qasr.

A total of 1,800 Iraqi personnel have been trained on 50 different courses,
including maritime, small arms, oil platform defence, and maintenance training. A ‘train the trainer’ focus has also given the Iraqi Navy the ability to develop an independent and self sustaining force for the future.

The impact on transport of the winter weather in December 2010

More can and should be done to ensure UK transport networks continue to operate in severe weather, said British Members of Parliament in a report issued on 12th May. The welfare of air and rail passengers must be taken more seriously and better real time information must be provided to road users.

A report examining how snow chaos last December closed Heathrow, disabled parts of the rail network and disrupted many roads, was launched by Transport Committee Chairman, Louise Ellman MP (Labour/Co-operative Liverpool Riverside).

It was reported from the Australian Defence Force Media Centre in Canberra on 9th May that F/A-18F Super Hornets were taking part on their first mission during Exercise Bersama Shield 2011 over Malaysia.

The Super Hornets, also known as Rhinos, commenced the Force Integration
Training phase which saw aircrew practise basic fighter manoeuvres alongside
military aircraft from the Malaysian and Singaporean defence forces.

Six of the Rhinos from No 1 Squadron touched down at the Royal Malaysian Air Force Base in Butterworth, on 29th April to participate in their first overseas deployment since delivery of the multi-role fighter jets in March last year.

On 10th May the European Space Agency (ESA) reported that Pau Pyrénées in southern France has become Europe’s first airport to use the new EGNOS Safety-of-Life Service, to guide aircraft in for landing using only this highly accurate space navigation signal.

Clermont-Ferrand Airport in central France is also set to start using EGNOS – serving mainly business aircraft – while Marseilles Airport should also join them, chosen because it is used by Eurocopter for helicopter certification.

Le Bourget Airport is also scheduled to be equipped with EGNOS by the time the Paris Air Show starts in June.

It is ideas time again… The 8th European Satellite Navigation Competition www.ukesnc.com has begun and we are again looking for the most innovative ideas for a location based service or a new satellite navigation application.

The European Satellite Navigation Competition provides a unique platform for innovators to showcase their work and receive well-deserved recognition from their peers nationally and internationally.

Do you or someone you know have an idea that uses satellite navigation technology as a core part of the system? You could win up to £ 10,000 plus additional investment, business consultancy and services from a range of UK and European partners.

The UK winner will also be in with the chance of winning the overall European prize worth an additional € 20,000.

Captain Dick Smith RN has resigned as IAIN representative to the US Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board.

Dick – RIN President 1999-2002 and Immediate Past-President of the International Association of Institutes of Navigation (IAIN) – has represented IAIN on the Board since its inception in 2007. Now finding it hard to cope with the travel involved, he has handed over representation to the current IAIN President, Dr Refaat Rashad, President of the Arab Institutes of Navigation.

This year’s European Navigation Conference, ENC 2011, to be held in London, will cover advances in all aspects of location and navigation technology and their applications.

Sessions will be organised into both plenary and parallel means which will cover navigation system infrastructure and policy, technical and commercial aspects of varied applications, and safety and security issues.

Authors are invited to submit a brief outline of their presentation, not exceeding 300 words. Please note the closing date for this call for papers is 9th May 2011.

The organisation has provided us with more information

Air traffic control incidents – On 22nd April the (US) National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released preliminary reports on two air traffic control incident investigations.

NTSB investigation into Lubbock, Texas crash – On 22nd April NTSB announced that it will hold a public Board meeting on its investigation into an accident in which a cargo airplane crashed on approach to landing in Lubbock, Texas.

NTSB and a 2010 plane crash involving former Senator Stevens – As part of its continuing investigation into the 9th August, 2010 aviation accident in Alaska, NTSB announced on 21st April that it had made the accident docket available to the public.

Annual aviation statistics for 2010
The safety of civil aviation in the United States continued to make incremental
improvements across most industry segments in 2010, based on the preliminary
aviation accident statistics released on 20th April by the NTSB.