Why Coordination? The Most Neglected Component of Search and Rescue
By Matthew Mitchell, Founder and CEO, International Association of Search and Rescue Coordinators (IASARC)
It is the first to be overlooked by administrations and elected officials yet remains a single point of failure in most emergencies. It is the least robustly supported by government policy makers, yet case studies and investigations consistently reveal that this component is the most likely to fail. The public does not recognize it as a profession, yet it demands extraordinarily complex skills to perform competently. Legal and regulatory structures underrepresent it, yet lives would not be saved without it. It is the coordination component of global, national, and regional search and rescue (SAR) systems.
The human tendency to focus on what is most overt is understandable. Psychologists call this salience bias, the predisposition to focus on the prominent, visible, or emotionally striking stimuli. Most would prefer to watch a movie about Ashton Kutcher jumping out of a helicopter than a movie about a 911 operations center or international rescue coordination center (RCC). We focus on the pointy end of the spear, rarely who is holding it.
To develop and advance life-saving capability, we must set aside expected human biases and base decisions on facts and evidence. While we will always need improved rescue vessels, better aircraft sensors, and highly competent personnel in the field, coordination is the single most impactful factor in the life-saving industry that will yield the most substantial improvements in positive outcomes for the least cost.
Governments have a moral duty to provide SAR services and ensure those services are well coordinated. International conventions establish the various aspects of that duty and outline requirements and recommendations to assist governments in fulfilling their responsibilities. Unfortunately, compliance with these conventions and general performance in executing this moral duty remain alarmingly inconsistent. For example, during the 2023 national audits by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), compliance ranged from 81% at best down to only 6%. Even more concerning, 53% of the Caribbean states have no formal SAR services.
In a telling anecdote from a prominent SAR expert, they remarked, “what I have seen from visiting RCCs, [is that] 80% don’t have trained SMCs [SAR Mission Coordinators] and don’t have a training program.” The situation is dire, even in developed nations.
A 2022 U.S. report revealed that a SAR service indicated, “Many SAR planners and SMCs do not have the appropriate knowledge or experience to adequately manage a response to a distress incident.” Similarly, Canada’s Quadrennial SAR Review urged that “[National SAR Program] partners must continue to improve coordination.”
Case Study: A Simple Error, A Life Lost
Having served as the Chief of Policy for SAR in the U.S. Coast Guard, I have reviewed hundreds of case studies and investigations. Out of these, I can think of only two incidents where the life-threatening failures were not within the coordination component. In one year alone, I tracked three cases where a simple inability to transcribe position information accurately impacted a life-saving outcome. Several clear signs of search planning errors were revealed, leading to response assets being sent to areas well outside the intended search area. In another four cases that year, distress indicators were outright dismissed due to misinterpretations, leading to unnecessary fatalities. The outright dismissal of clear details that, interpreted correctly, should have prompted a rescue response. If these errors had been prevented, lives could have been saved.
More and more those working in the field of search and rescue are coming to accept the need to focus more on this coordination component, but most are at a loss for the next steps. A typical answer is to improve training, yet to what end or defined level of competency? Another common suggestion is to require a specific career background, such as having served as an air traffic controller, before coordinating aeronautical SAR. Much work is also being considered in expanding or promoting existing international standards. And all of these may be pieces of the puzzle, but there seems to be an underlying and more fundamental issue at hand. Indeed, that macro challenge within SAR coordination is that the job itself is not yet fully professionalized.
What Is a Profession?
Professionalization refers to an evolutionary process in which self-directed work is transformed over time into work that supports larger organizations and the public. Fields that successfully navigate this evolution are generally characterized by universal ethical standards, specialized knowledge and skill, prolonged training based on widely accepted criteria, and a corporate body of knowledge derived from theoretical and empirical research.
The watershed moment in a field’s evolution is the development of a qualifying association – a body of that field’s leading experts united to ensure professional conformity, improve the status of the members, and engage in research to advance the profession’s corporate body of knowledge. The appearance of such an association is both essential and inevitable. Today, one cannot find a recognized profession that is not supported by at least one such association.
A cornerstone function of these associations is providing a path to validate that an individual practitioner has attained a particular level of knowledge and skill in that field, generally called certification. This process is a formal attestation by an independent body that a practitioner has achieved a level of competence that satisfies the underlying standards. It should be noted that certifications are distinct from the licenses issued by governmental authorities to grant legal authority to practice a highly regulated profession.
The Evolution of SAR Coordination
Historically, the skills necessary to coordinate a response to a distress incident were attained on the job. Before robust coordinating shore stations, today termed Rescue Coordination Centers (RCC), the coordination of any response was primarily left to the senior official on the scene or near the incident. Communications technologies advanced, enabling responses to be coordinated over broader areas and amongst more responding units. Still, though, skill was attained through experience on the job.
Beginning in November of 1945, the SAR Division of the newly formed ICAO started to work on what would become known as Annex 12, Search and Rescue. This Annex serves as the first authoritative international document establishing standards for SAR. States worldwide began refining and bolstering their national SAR systems, often creating specialized training for persons coordinating responses.
In June of 1966, the U.S. Coast Guard established the National Search and Rescue School in cooperation with the U.S. Air Force. The notice establishing this School explained, “Traditionally, on-the-job experience has been the only method of training Coast Guard personnel for duties involving search and rescue. In recognition of changing technology and methodology and to provide uniform training for conducting operations in this major mission area, a 4-week Search and Rescue School has been established…”
While the international convention established standards, a new field of scientific inquiry was emerging that would underlie all search planning, an integral component of SAR coordination. In 1946, the U.S. Navy’s Operations Evaluation Group completed a classified report, A Theoretical Basis for Methods of Search and Screening. Although not the first effort to develop scientifically valid methodologies for search, it was the first to rigorously apply “engineering, physics, physiology, mathematics, and statistics” to address what it referred to as “the field involving the problems of search.”
Once declassified, Search Theory, a science developed to aid the U.S. Navy in “the detection of the enemy,” was quickly leveraged to save lives. A small but talented cohort of search theorists emerged within the world’s SAR authorities, who became the torchbearers of the science and, ultimately, the genesis of all search planning methodologies today.
Throughout the later part of the 20th century, the science and policy aspects of SAR coordination continued to develop. The first computer-aided search planning systems were designed to replace manual methods. New advances in oceanography permitted more accurate drift simulations. In 1999, the international conventions governing the Global SAR System were leveraged to create a single publication (albeit in three volumes) to establish standards and methodologies for maritime and aeronautical SAR, the IAMSAR Manual.
Thus, at the beginning of the 21st century, the global community was the benefactor of the evolution of a field, formerly without any standards, formal training, or an underlying science, to one on the verge of emerging as a recognized profession. Yet one thing remained missing.
SAR Coordination: An Unfinished Profession
While SAR coordination has evolved, it is not fully professionalized. Although robust standards exist for individuals and organizations involved in SAR coordination, like those within the IAMSAR Manual, they are inconsistently applied, even in the most advanced nations. Unlike other critical professions, SAR coordination lacks an independent certifying body, i.e., association, to uphold accepted standards, advocate for the profession writ large, and build its corporate body of knowledge. This gap in professionalization directly impacts SAR effectiveness worldwide.
The Mission of the International Association of Search and Rescue Coordinators
The International Association of Search and Rescue Coordinators (IASARC) was founded to promote the continued professionalization of SAR Coordination. This international professional association comprises leading experts united in the shared mission to Advance the Profession of SAR Coordination through challenging professional certifications, advocacy for improved law and regulation, and scientific advancement.
Certification. Skills and their certification have become a global currency. Organizations, from governmental authorities to nonprofits, excel only when they employ and promote skilled individuals. Certification processes validate that an individual has attained high expertise in a given field. They build credibility through independent third-party knowledge, skills, and abilities assessments. In short, they demonstrate competence.
To date, there are no independent certifying bodies within SAR coordination. Competence is assessed only through internal qualification processes that often vary widely from one region to another. Certifications are widely recognized and respected within a broad range of industries, whereas internal qualifications, those unique to only a specific organization, are often not. IASARC provides a standardized and equitable means of demonstrating competence in the lifesaving profession of SAR coordination, bringing value to individuals, governments, the global community, and various industries.
Professional conformity is a cornerstone of any profession. Members' proficiency is based on specific, identifiable skills, attitudes, and a corporate body of knowledge. Competence is validated through independent review and testing, a certification process. IASARC’s principal objective is establishing certification requirements and processes for key positions within SAR coordination and to align terminology with the IAMSAR Manual and its founding conventions.
Unlike traditional internal qualification processes, IASARC certifications offer a standardized, globally recognized means of demonstrating SAR coordination competence. Organizations, from government agencies to nonprofits, excel only when they employ skilled individuals. Certification ensures that expertise is recognized, transferable, and respected. A council of the profession’s leading experts establishes uniform minimum requirements to be demonstrated to attain a professional certification. The initial certifications cover the positions of SAR Manager, SAR Mission Coordinator (aeronautical, maritime, and land specialties), On-Scene Coordinator, and SAR Dispatcher. IASARC has adopted four distinct categories of requirements for each certification: knowledge, experience, training, and contributions to the profession.
Advocacy. Another critical aspect of any professional organization is the need to improve the support afforded to and prestige of its members. Like many industries, saving lives is guided by convention, regulation, plans, and policies. However, these documents are often developed without due regard for the coordination component of SAR. The advocacy silo of IASARC will collaborate with government decision-makers and educate political leadership to identify areas of improvement to strengthen SAR systems around the world.
Advancement. Beyond certification and advocacy, IASARC will play a critical role in advancing the scientific fields that contribute to the life-saving mission, offering a venue to exchange and collaborate on the scientific aspects of the evolving profession. For example, the science of Search Theory, which underlies the entire SAR enterprise, is advanced almost exclusively within governmental institutions, hindering scientific advancement and potential collaboration when data is not immediately shared with academia and other thought communities. IASARC will catalyze vital partners, such as manufacturers of navigation systems and sensor platforms, who often need to be made aware of developments in such sciences as Search Theory and thus cannot fully leverage their potential. Independent scientific collaboration and coordination with industry leaders will ensure that SAR professionals have access to capabilities designed to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of the SAR mission.
The Future of SAR Coordination
SAR coordination is at a crossroads. We can continue to operate in an inconsistent, underrecognized framework, or we can elevate SAR coordination into a fully professionalized, scientifically advanced discipline. The choice is clear.
IASARC envisions a world where every life in distress that can be saved is saved. Saving lives is a moral duty transcending national borders, politics, governments, and industries. Responding to incidents where people are in distress requires expert coordination by exceptionally skilled professionals leveraging the most advanced technological capabilities to achieve this mission.
Unlike many other endeavors, saving lives in distress cannot be truly quantified. Life is of infinite value; therefore, the enterprise that seeks to save life must advance and improve infinitely. We must act now. No matter the degree of excellence that a nation’s SAR system may demonstrate, the ability to render aid to persons in distress in all environments requires SAR professionals to be ever vigilant, and the organizations that enable them ever to improve their SAR systems: Amplio Infinite - Improve Infinitely.
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