SAR
Technology Consultation - Aircraft Crash-Maps
Crash-Map Preparation for Missing Aircraft
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Crashed Helicopter |
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Crashed Light Aircraft |
Searches
for missing aircraft are often very challenging. Large search areas, few clues,
bad weather and the lack of a flight plan often create significant difficulties
for the air-search. When there has been no beacon transmission the Search
Master may have to rely on airport records, radio logs and radar tracks to help
estimate the last probable location of the aircraft. Under these conditions
negative information, i.e. the aircraft did not pass into a certain location,
may also be used to help determine the search area.
Most
initial responses for the missing aircraft will typically involve flying the
predicted flight path of the aircraft, followed by increasingly detailed
searching of designated high probability areas. Unfortunately the probability of
detection of search aircraft over land is typically fairly low. Combine this
with the very large areas to be covered – often hundreds of miles long – and
this may result in a very prolonged search, frequently utilizing numerous
aircraft for a great many days.
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Calculated Crash-Landing Locations and Escape Routes |
Where a Last Probable Position can be
estimated it is possible to create a
calculated ‘Crash Map’ of the search area. This ‘Crash Map’ is based
upon the aerodynamic properties of the aircraft, the effect wind on the aircraft
and on the terrain features beneath the aircraft. With this information it is
possible to create a 360-degree ’Crash Map’ that identifies potential crash
sites within the maximum range of both
fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.
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Calculated 'Crash Map' |
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Calculated 'Crash Map' with |
The calculated ‘Crash Map’ identifies potential crash locations for
both powered and un-powered aircraft:
Powered Aircraft
Powered Aircraft - flying
at a level altitude.
Powered Aircraft - climbing in elevation.
Powered Aircraft - descending in elevation.
Un-Powered Aircraft
Un-Powered Aircraft - flying with significant loss of control.
Un-Powered Aircraft - flying with moderate loss of control.
Un-Powered Aircraft - flying with full pilot control.
The
‘Crash Map’ also identifies Height-of-Land
potential crash locations, delineating all
heights of land that would cause an impact with the aircraft.
Potential 'Escape Routes' for a pilot trying to avoid heights of land.
Identifying potential
height-of-land crash locations can very significantly reduce the size of the
theoretical search area, permitting search resources to focus more on these
potential crash locations. This can provide major benefits to the search
effort, permitting both air assets and mechanized ground resources to search
these specific ground locations, often with a significantly increased local
probability of detection.
SAR
Technology Inc. is pleased to provide the service to create calculated
aircraft ‘Crash Maps’ for requesting agencies, organizations and
individuals. These maps are delivered as either detailed, geo-referenced
image-maps that can be viewed directly or as GIS map layers that can be
displayed within ‘Incident Commander Pro’ or other standard GIS
applications.
For more information regarding Aircraft 'Crash Map' creation services
please contact SAR
Technology Inc.
SAR
Technology Inc.
5268 Sprucefeild Road, West Vancouver
B.C., Canada V7W 2X6
Phone:
(604) 590-7419 / (604) 921-2488
Fax (604) 921-2484
Supporting
the Air-Search Mission - with ‘Incident
Commander Pro’
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