Rieti - How a missing glider and pilot were found

This is sad news, but contains some information worth sharing.

(links
http://www.vigilfuoco.it/notiziario/...p?codnews=8449

http://www.salzburg.com/online/salzb...=&text=&mode=&
http://www.instablog.org/ultime/53447.html


During the Coppa del Mediterraneo in Rieti, 3-14 august, an Austrian
ASG29e/18m pilot was declared missing. I was there, and I can tell how
a frustrating and sad experience it has been.
His body and the glider were to be found not sooner than 3 days later.

The crash happened for reasons under investigation. No ELT signals
were received neither by the Sarsat, nor by the SAR teams once they
were alerted.
At first, it was thought that no ELT was on board, as an old 121.5
unit was found in the storage box of his trailer. Instead, it has been
reported by the rescuers that a newer 406MHz ELT unit was installed on
board.

The search has involved almost a hundred people, including the fellow
pilots themselves who went hiking in the area, as the competition was
frozen during SAR operations.

GSM phone contacts with the local cells were analysed by the police to
try and find a clue as to where the glider could be. The words that
were reported to us are (IMVHO) a little hard to believe: the cell
phone was off during the flight, but nevertheless it was traced by the
communication company which sent tracing interrogations. (I would
definitely think of a misunderstanding: the phone was most probably
on, or went off at the moment of the impact, and only the last contact
before the crash was logged).

Nevertheless, another point is also relevant. A creative mind came
with the idea of analysing all the FLARM log files sent in by the
pilots flying on the day of the accident. The Swiss factory was very
helpful.
It was just a matter of hours before it was determined that a few of
the units had tracked the missing glider's known FLARM ID signal. It
was possible to reconstruct an approximate flown track thanks to a
handful of contacts.
The wreckage was found at about 3 km from the last Flarm recorded
position.

Everybody should check their ELT installation, keep their cell phone
active, bring a Spot unit or any other tracking device, don't
underestimate Flarm, especially in a crowded competition like the CIM
(over 80 gliders flying every day).

Below is an extract from an email I received from the guys who did the
actual analysis work.

Aldo Cernezzi





Flarm's units (together with Ediatec's ECW100 and LX Navigation's
MiniBox and RedBox) store in their IGC-files also some of the Flarm
radio contacts made with other aircraft. This additional data contains
- among other data - the time, the unique identification and the 3d
position. This data is stored to allow pilots to check and improve
their own installation and range by using a free online tool
(http://www.flarm.com/support/analyze/index_en.html). In the case of
the missing glider, this information now is used for a different
purpose.

[...] the system ID for Flarm of the missing glider had to be found
out. To speed up and simplify such search activities in the future,
pilots should register at http://www.flarmnet.org

With all this information being collected, a first position estimate
was available at 14:43h LT, corrected by 15:14h LT as new IGC-files
were available. By 16:25h LT, a synthetic reconstruction of the
IGC-file from the missing aircraft could be rendered by Flarm
Technology, showing a last position at [skip] on straight cruising at
134° ground track at 14:29:18 LT (UTC+2h).

Based on the experience made today, we recommend:
- competition organisers should ask competitors upon registration to
file their Flarm ID
- pilots should file their Flarm ID actively at
http://www.flarmnet.org
- in case of a missing aircraft, immediately contact Flarm Technology,
collect IGC-files recorded by Flarm-units, and submit them together
with as much information on the missing aircraft and pilot to Flarm
Technology
- pilots should regularly check the Flarm installation and range with
the free online tool
(http://www.flarm.com/support/analyze/index_en.html).

On Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:07:31 +0200, cernauta wrote:


GSM phone contacts with the local cells were analysed by the police to
try and find a clue as to where the glider could be.

I must add that the location was described as a radial from the given
ground station cell, in a very wide range of possible distances.
Nevertheless, the contact proved itself to be consistent with the
actual location. It just wasn't the most relevant information due to
the low accuracy level. The ground station cell was based at around
30km from the place of impact (in a mountain territory).

Aldo Cernezzi