1 Confidentiel Industrie © MANOPI, 2012

Dealing with aircraft accident at sea,

Efficient Crisis Management

By Mr. Hubert THOMAS

Technical Manager,

MANOPI - FRANCE

MANOPI

TRIDENT - AUV SCHOOL

Port de Soller (Mallorca), October 3rd, 2012

2012-10-03 ACSA WShop AUV School Soller.ppt

2 © MANOPI, 2012.

ACSA UNDERWATER POSITIONING & ROBOTICS

MANOPI

3 © MANOPI, 2012.

SERVICE COMPANY: MANOPI

ACSA is a high-tech company manufacturing advanced underwater positioning

equipment and robotics.

Even if ACAS has always responded under very short notice in critical situation

to authorities and navies requests for ULBs Search at sea, the company is not

organized to mobilize its experts for such operations.

Moreover, Investigation Authorities have expressed interest to contractualise

black boxes relocation services to a highly specialized and independent

service company.

As a consequence MANOPI* has been created to perform FDR and VDR pre-

localization (Detector-1000), accurate positioning (GIB-SAR buoys) systems

and training to exercises.

* MANOPI and ACSA companies belong to French private ALCEN's group.

MANOPI

4 Confidentiel Industrie © MANOPI, 2012

PRESENTATION PLAN

1/ INTRODUCTION

2/ ALERTMENT - ACCIDENTS TYPE

3/ TRADITIONAL SAR MEANS

4/ FLYING TEAM CONCEPT

5/ ACSA EQUIPMENT SUITE

6/ ACCIDENT TRACK RECORDS

7/ NEXT STEP - RECOVERY ISSUES

MANOPI

5 © MANOPI, 2012.

READ IN THE PRESS

"However, if the technology is available, let's

calculate the cost and talk about the details later…"

Aircraft company representative

"Parts of aircraft might have drifted south

following sea currents at a speed of 0.7 knots.

After 10 days they could be as far as 300 km away."

Accident "A"

Accident "B"

Accident "C"

Day 3 : Wreck and black boxes have been found in 1300 m, …

Day 6 : Precise localization of black boxes is complex ...

Day 10 : Black boxes have been found in 70 m, ...

MANOPI

2009

2009

2010

6 © MANOPI, 2012.

MANOPI

© Copyright ACSA 2009

Confidentiel Industrie

2009 - AF-447 Search reality

TPL Ship #1 TPL Ship #2 Dedicated Ship

"Pourquoi Pas"

VICTOR SAR SNA

Satellites Frigates

7 © MANOPI, 2012.

ALERTMENT PROCEDURE

MANOPI

- IATA International Air Transport Association

- ICAO

International Civil Aviation Organization

- Chicago convention

Appendix 13

Rules aircratf accidents investigations

How do we know an accident has occured ?

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ACCIDENT TYPES

MANOPI

- Tentative to land on

sea surface

- High speed crash

Completely different to deal with ?

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ACCIDENT TYPE 1

MANOPI

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ACCIDENT TYPE 2

MANOPI

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ACCIDENT NUMBER

MANOPI

- 41 Major civil aircraft accident over the period 1969-2011

- Numerous helicopters accidents

- Numerous military aircrafs accidents

(Refer to French Navy List)

12 © MANOPI, 2012.

ACCIDENTS DEPTHS

MANOPI

Number Cumulated %

0-50 m 14 14 39%

50-300 m 10 24 67%

300-1000 m 3 27 75%

1000-2500 m 5 32 89%

> 2500 m 4 36 100%

Accidents

Depths

13

19

Divers Recovery

ROV Recovery

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TIME TO RECOVER BLACK BOXES (VDR - FDR)

MANOPI

Crash

Date Flight Site

Water

Depth BB #1 BB#2

17/07/96 TWA Flight 800 SW South Island 30 m +8 +8

02/09/98 Swissair Flight 111 Halifax 55 m +4 +9

31/10/99 Egyptair Flight 990 New York Waters 85 m +9 +13

30/01/00 Kenia Flight 431 2 miles offshore Abidjan 50 m +6 >14

31/01/00 Alaska Airlines 261 Los Angeles -- Pt. Mugu 230 m +3 +4

25/05/02 China Airlines CI-611 Taiwan Straight 70 m +24 >24

12/12/06 Hélico RSNF Red Sea Jeddah 1040 m +70 -

01/06/09 AF-447 Rio-Paris Brasil 4 500 +700 -

30/06/09 YEMENIA Y-626 Comores 1 200 +59 +59

24/09/09 PA CDG Méditerranée Perpignan 700 +30 -

03/01/04 Flash airlines Egypt Red Sea Tiran Strait 1000 m + 13 +14

03/05/06 A320 Armania Black Sea Sotchi 496 m + 20 + 22

14 © MANOPI, 2012.

OPERATIONS COSTS

MANOPI

Craft of opportunity : 1000-2000 $/Day

DP SHIP : 150.000-170.000 $/Day

LUMP SUM : 3 M USD

AVERAGE : 6 M USD

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SEARCH OPERATIONS

• At sea aircraft accidents are especially difficult to deal with

• Crash point coordinates are poorly known

• When surface debris are found, they have been pushed away

by wind and currents

• Access to search area is difficult due to weather conditions

and distance to shore

• SAR operations require specific equipment not available locally

MANOPI

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KEY ISSUES

• Fast and accurate Black Boxes localization and recovery is a key

issue in crisis management

• Failing to give consistent and correct information at the very early

stage to the media will lead to:

- contradictory information given by the crisis communication cell,

- local authorities and national airlines' reputation damage,

- social media network tendency to spiral out of control,

- and finally lost of sovereignty.

MANOPI

17 © MANOPI, 2012.

KEY ISSUES

• At the opposite, as soon as the crisis room can announce that

black boxes have been located and not only heard,

media stop hassling the crisis cell.

• When recorders coordinates are known with a metric accuracy,

then, time is no more a critical issue.

• It allows investigation authorities to select and contractualise

adequate recovery means with no pressure.

• The recovery means have then time to transit and can even arrive

on site later than the critical 30 days following accident date.

• Further, the ROV will reach CVR and FDR very quickly,

even if ULBs are no more active.

MANOPI

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EFFICIENT OPERATION MEANS

• Guaranteed success

• Lower operational costs

• Crisis communication

under full control

Operational and cost efficiency is now possible worldwide

and accessible to every investigation authority

based on ACSA's solutions.

MANOPI

19 © MANOPI, 2012.

UNDERWATER LOCATION BEACONS (ULBs)

Each aircraft Black Box (CVR & FDR) carries an emergency locator beacon

also named "ULB" for Underwater Locator Beacon broadcasting acoustic signals.

They are specially design for relocation purposes.

ULBs characteristics are:

- Frequency : 37.5 kHz +/- 1kHz,

- Transmit level : 160 dB,

- Repetition rate : ~1 Hz +/- 10%,

- Autonomy : 30 days,

- Collapsing depth : 6000 m,

Additional difficulties

- 2 similar acoustic sources close by,

- Sea noise level could be above signal level

- Ray bending (Thermocline layer)

MANOPI

20 © MANOPI, 2012.

TRADITIONAL SAR MEANS (Acoustic Relocation)

• Underwater directional finders

• Towed pinger locators

• Acoustic homing devices

• Accuracy +/- 100 m

Operate in calm weather

• 30 Tons to air lift

+ Supply ship

• Requires ROV and DP Ship

MANOPI

21 © MANOPI, 2012.

MANOPI’s FLYING TEAM CONCEPT

• MANOPI has gained a strong background in aircrafts, helicopters,

weapons relocation and assistance to distressed submarines

in numerous complex situations.

• MANOPI improved during critical situations the GIB-SAR design

to finally set-up the Flying Team concept as a SAR methodology

for fast and accurate Black Boxes localization and recovery.

MANOPI

22 © MANOPI, 2012.

MANOPI's FLYING TEAM CONCEPT

Efficiency is linked to sequencing operations step by step:

1/ Understand accident environment

2/ Locate hay stack

3/ Locate needles

4/ Determine wreck depth

5/ Select adequate rescue means

6/ Fast recovery by homing directly onto target using longitude

and latitude coordinates

What have we learned from previous experiences ?

Needles metric positioning accuracy highly

reduces recovery operations’ time and costs !

MANOPI

23 © MANOPI, 2012.

FLYING TEAM OPERATIONAL APPROACH

The Flying Team is composed of 3 experts, well trained and continuously

kept at the highest level of expertise to conduct Black Boxes localization

and recovery operations, using ACSA's suite of equipment and proceeding

step by step in a very secure way.

Team is ready to be flown 7/7 day to any place worldwide.

- Team is flown to site on commercial

airlines together with search equipment

- On site mobilization of a vessel of opportunity

- Transit to accident site, even in bad weather

- Relocate hay stack and needles

- Measure wreck depth

MANOPI

24 Confidentiel Industrie © MANOPI, 2012

ACSA SYSTEMS

DETECTOR-1000 DETECTOR-1000

On going

R&D

Program*

Unveiled

early in 2013

Find

Hay

Stack

Locate

Needles

Guide

Recovery

mean

GIB-SAR

Continental Shelf

(300 m)

Deep Water

(2 000 m)

Ultra Deep Water

(6 000 m)

* Following

AF-447 accident

MANOPI

25 © MANOPI, 2012.

DETECTOR-1000 - OPERATIONAL PROCEDURE

1. Dip Detector below thermocline

and surface noise,

2. Acquire signal for 10 minutes,

3. Recover it back on board,

4. While transiting to next station,

Process data: ULB is around or not,

5. Dip again until ULB is detected.

Detection without false alarm:

Software output ULBs actual frequencies & repetition rates

Operations not dependant on weather conditions

MANOPI

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DETECTOR-1000 - COVERAGE EXAMPLE

Detection range 5 km

Search area 50x50 Km

49 Stations

MANOPI

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GIB-SAR BUOYS - LOCALIZATION PRINCIPLE

Unlike traditional acoustic direction finders, ACSA proposes an innovative

technique based on measuring the time of arrival of ULB's acoustic signals

on a 4 buoys surface network drifting within the search area.

Each buoy measures the time of arrival (TOA*) of the signals and transmits

this information together with its own D-GPS position to the Control and Display

console installed on board the support ship using a local radio network.

The ULB acoustic signal propagation time is directly converted to ULB/buoy

pseudo distance, knowing the sound velocity, then the position of the acoustic

source is given by triangulation. The positions of the buoys are known in WGS-84

coordinates and so is the ULBs position.

* TOA is measured with a 10-4 accuracy (+/- 15 cm on distance measurements).

MANOPI

28 © MANOPI, 2012.

GIB-SAR BUOYS - LOCALIZATION PRINCIPLE

The ACSA's GIB-SAR system allows a

1 meter ULB's positioning accuracy in

coastal and offshore waters up to 2.000

meters.

It is also used for guidance of the

recovery mean.

For example, it only took 15 minutes,

during a critical operation, in more than

1.000 meters, for a ROV to join an

helicopter wreck as positioned by the

GIB-SAR system.

MANOPI

29 © MANOPI, 2012.

TRIANGULATION PRINCIPLE

MANOPI

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GIB-SAR BUOYS SYNOPSIS

* TOA is measured with a 10-4 accuracy (+/- 15 cm on distance measurements).

MANOPI

GPS

BOARD

PROCESSOR

RADIO

UHF

ACOUSTIC

MODULE

Hydrophone

31 © MANOPI, 2012.

POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND

By improving UW positioning accuracy by a factor 10, search

area is reduced by a 100 factor and operations cost will follow !

Today, a positioning accuracy of 1 m is a reality on the

continental shelf, 5 m at greater depth, when right equipment is

employed and properly operated.

Such an accuracy open the path to new innovative underwater

robotics solutions.

MANOPI is strongly willing to develop such solutions to offer a

full package from positioning to recovery.

MANOPI

32 © MANOPI, 2012.

ACCIDENT TRACK RECORDS

Key operations have been conducted in the past together with the French

Navy and the French Bureau of Investigation (BEA) :

• Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt – 2004,

• Sotchi, Russia - 2006,

• Saudi Arabia Red Sea - 2007.

MANOPI

33 © MANOPI, 2012.

ACCIDENTS TRACK RECORDS – Sharm-El-Sheikh, EGYPT 2004

• Crashed into the Red Sea shortly after

takeoff approximately 6 nautical miles

southwest of the airport.

• Due to the depth of the Red Sea in the area

where the accident occured (approximately

1.000 meters), specialized recovery

ressources were required.

MANOPI

34 © MANOPI, 2012.

ACCIDENTS TRACK RECORDS – Sharm-El-Sheikh, EGYPT 2004

FDR/CVR Recovery

• «The French Navy used an directional acoustic

detector mounted on a pole. The seafloor being

uncharted at that time, locating the beacons was

complicated by possible reflections and echoes».

• 12 days after the crash, the French Navy called

ACSA to narrow the search area.

• On January 15th, 4 hours after accessing the

search area, ACSA system produced a new pinger

position accurate to within +/- 5 meters.

• « A visual search of a grid created around the new

pinger location resulted in the discovery of the FDR

on January 16, 2004».

MANOPI

35 © MANOPI, 2012.

MANOPI Investigation Organization

Capt. Kelada

IIC

Gérard Legauffre

French Acc Rep

Recovery Group

FDR/CVR Group

Systems Group

Operations Group

Other Groups

Olivier Ferrante

BEA Liaison

French Navy

French Commercial

Ships

Technical advisors

Frank Hilldrup

US Acc Rep

Egyptian Navy

36 © MANOPI, 2012.

2004 OPERATIONS TIME FRAME

MANOPI

Alertment

Environment assesment

Resce means mobilization

Accurate localization

Black boxes recovery

Investigations

Weeks

ACSA

I. Batz

Ile de Batz

Janus

CEPHISMER

BEAUTEMPS

SOMME& TOURVILLE

MOBILISATION

&

TRANSIT

6 2 3 4 5 1

3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 2 4 6 8 10 11

PATMAR

Localiser

Guider

Récupérer

1

2

3

4

37 © MANOPI, 2012.

Triangulation results

37.5 kHz

Emergency Locator Beacon

D + 2

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Zooming in on the Echo

Positional uncertainty about 10 meters

D + 12

Point Zéro

ACSA location

39 © MANOPI, 2012.

Black Sea Sotchi, RUSSIA 2006

• BEA Mission

• Airbus accident in the Black Sea

• Depth : 500 meters

• Needles positioning : 4 Hours

• Recovery: 5 weeks later,

• Recorders where buried in mud !

MANOPI

40 © MANOPI, 2012.

Red Sea 2007 - Military Helicopter

• French Navy Mission

• Helicopter accident in the Red Sea

• Depth : > 1.000 meters

• Mission occurred at the end of

ULBs’ battery life

• Helicopter positioning : 24 Hours –

poor acoustic propagation due to

biologic life (deep scattering layer)

• Positioning accuracy +/- 5m

• Recovery: 5 weeks later,

• ROV found the helicopter in less

than 13 minutes, without sonar! DP Ship Log Book

13 min

MANOPI

41 © MANOPI, 2012.

NEXT STEP

MANOPI

© Copyright ACSA 2009

Confidentiel Industrie

Photo IDB et ROV...

How to reduce recovery costs?

42 © MANOPI, 2012.

HOW TO REDUCE COSTS SOLUTIONS

MANOPI

How to reduce costs?

- Get rid of DP Ship

- Advanced robotics solutions

- Is technology available today?

- Proposal is to move from

TRL 5-6 level up to 7-8

- MANOPI invites you to discuss

how to meet this new challenge

- Depth objective: 3000 m

43 © MANOPI, 2012.

QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSIONS

MANOPI

How to reduce costs?

44 © MANOPI, 2012.

NEXT STEP - INVITATION TO VISIT US

MANOPI

Aix-en-Provence

45 © MANOPI, 2012.

POINTS OF CONTACT

Mail:

hthomas@manopi-alcen.com

Cell:

+33 6 21 50 02 43

or visit:

www.alcen.com

MANOPI