General Description

All SAR missions are managed by a SAR Mission Coordinator, who is the individual with delegated responsibility to ensure a successful outcome to every SAR mission. The SMC will be responsible for the management of his RCC staff, as well as making key decisions and generating plans for the management of response and rescue. The SMC will often work in a fast paced environment in which the effective assimilation of information is often the key to success. Unravelling information and filling information gaps, always under the pressure of time, can sometimes require similar skills to those of a maritime detective, and at the same time the SMC must apply experience and professional expertise. The role is to coordinate both the SAR planning process as well as the physical response effort, evaluating the result of actions taken and modifying plans in the light of new information. This course examines the role and responsibilities of the SMC in the finest detail and will use training aids such as the “Systematic Approach to SAR” model to make sense of a complex process.

Course Aim

The SAR Mission Coordination Course aims to give students a thorough knowledge of IAMSAR processes guiding the response to and coordination of every SAR Mission. By the end of the course the student will have demonstrated the knowledge and have practiced the application through participation in a large number of practical exercises. In effect this is an opportunity to generate experience and to experiment in a safe environment.

Prerequisite Knowledge or qualifications

The student should have a good knowledge, and if possible experience, of radio communications and search planning competences used throughout the SAR response process. However, this is not essential, and a new recruit into the field of SAR will have much to gain by attending this course.
The course will be delivered using the English Language, and students should be orally fluent in its use. With proper notice, it may be possible to organise an interpreter service should the client deem this necessary.

Target Audience

This course is designed for Rescue Centre Staff who are seeking promotion to the post of SAR Mission Coordinator. It is equally important for existing SMC’s to keep abreast of developments in of world of SAR and to refresh these skills on a regular basis. Refresher training is recommended at intervals of between 3 and 5 years, depending upon the levels of live incident management, and the seniority or experience levels of the individual. All SAR Senior Managers should experience this course at least once to gain a sufficiently detailed knowledge of the resources and processes required during SAR response. Commanders of declared SAR response facilities will benefit by gaining a much deeper understanding of the role and responsibilities of their counterparts, the SMC.

Detailed Course Content

• IMO and Strategic level Search and Rescue
• Role and Responsibilities of the SMC
• Relationship SMC v SRU Commander
• Relationship SMC v OSC
  • OSC purpose and selection criteria
• OSC Role and Responsibilities
• Command, Control & Co-ordination
• Impact of Human Element
  • Inter personal communications
  • Teamwork
  • Decision making
  • Effective listening and feedback loops
• Systematic Approach to SAR
• Information Gathering & questioning techniques
  • Communications and extended communications searches
  • Aide memoires
• GMDSS radio communications systems
• Information analysis (FFPAP model)
• Emergency Phase Classification
  • Stages & Phases
  • Types of incident
• Mission Planning & forward planning
• Mission Termination, Hypothermia & Hyperthermia
• SRU selection
• Non mobile resources available to the SMC
• Publications - the RCC library
• SAR Reporting & SAR SITREPS
• The Major Incident Dealing with the Media