SARTIME campaign launched

Pilots are being urged to remember to cancel their SARTIME through a new campaign launched recently by Airservices Australia.

A SARTIME is a time nominated by a pilot to trigger an alert if he or she has not communicated a prior cancellation. The campaign, dubbed ‘SARTIME minus 5’, asks pilots to set their mobile phone alarm for five minutes before their SARTIME is due to expire. Airservices hopes this will trigger them to remember to ring Airservices to extend or cancel their SARTIME when appropriate.

Airservices Australian Flight Information Centre Manager, Ian Harding, said that often pilots forgot to cancel their search and rescue time at the end of a safe flight.

“The reality is that very few expired SARTIMES are the result of an aircraft in distress,” Harding said. “Each year, around 12,000 SARTIMES expire without being cancelled by pilots. Up to 1800 of these are passed on to AusSAR (Australian Search and Rescue) when pilots cannot be contacted by Airservices within 15 minutes.

“SARTIMES are essential in letting the appropriate people – including police, Australian search and rescue and air traffic control – know that you’ve arrived safely. It also prevents unnecessary search and rescue operations – a highly resource intensive and costly process.”

The campaign includes the distribution of stickers and posters to target groups. ERSA subscribers will receive stickers with the next regular update of the publication.