ICAO Global Aeronautical Distress & Safety System (GADSS) and Autonomous Distress Tracking (ADT) Implementation

Aviation Stakeholders’ Commitment

 

Establishment of a Global Aeronautical Distress & Safety System (GADSS) emerged from the recognized need and common effort of Aviation Industry and Regulators. Pursuing its mission to represent, lead and serve the airline industry, IATA was instrumental in the GADSS construct and is committed to the GADSS implementation.

ICAO Standards

 

The ICAO Standard 6.18.1 of Annex 6 (Operation of Aircraft), Part 1 (International Commercial Air Transport – Aeroplanes) sets the following GADSS related requirement: “As of 1 January 2025, all aeroplanes of a  maximum certificated take-off mass of over 27,000 kg for which the individual certificate of airworthiness is first issued on or after 1 January 2024, shall autonomously transmit information from which a position can be determined by the operator at least once every minute, when in distress, in accordance with Appendix 9”.

Industry Engagement

Manufacturers

Manufacturers pursued the design, certification and production of aircraft and equipment necessary to enable operators to comply with the corresponding individual States’ Requirements reflecting the ICAO Standard. Nevertheless, the complete fruition of some of their unfolded design, certification, production, and deployment efforts is still pending.

Airlines

Operators of individual aircraft for which compliance with the ICAO Standard is required, are essentially dependent on the adequate solutions to be made available by Design Approval Holders (DAHs) and Manufacturers to either retro-fit the eligible aircraft already in-service or production-line-fit of eligible aircraft to be delivered. In a significant number of cases, the availability of such solutions is still pending.

Jurisdictions

EASA Jurisdiction

The said ICAO Standard is reflected in CAT.GEN.MPA.210 Location of an aircraft in distress — Aeroplanes of the Rules for Air Operations (Regulation (EU) No 965/2012). Implementation and enforcement by Member States (MS) for Community Aircraft could be subject to Article 71 of Basic Regulation (EU) 2018/1139. For Third Country Operators (TCO), such implementation and enforcement by EASA could be subject to Article 76(4) of Basic Regulation (EU) 2018/1139.

FAA Jurisdiction

The FAA recorded in the ICAO Electronic Filing Of Differences (EFOD) system the Difference in Character/Other Means of Compliance to the said ICAO Standard elaborating that the U.S. will provide a means to track aircraft using primary radar, secondary radar Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and space based ADS-B. ADS-B will track aircraft every second within the United States and every 2-8 seconds for flights outside of the U.S. airspace and referring to its body of regulation points 14 CFR 91.225, 91.227.

Global Status

Despite the efforts of aviation manufacturers to address the equipment production and installation backlogs and to stabilize the future aircraft deliveries, we estimate that operators around the globe will potentially reach a peak of around 750 non-compliant aircraft in their in-service fleets sometime during 2025.

This would force the respective operating airlines to be in non-compliance with the national regulations of those States who have adopted the said standard, including those overflown during the execution of the flight. Additionally, such operations could be curbed by States of destination or overflight under several Articles of the Chicago Convention.

We should recognize that until such time when the referred aircraft are equipped and certified, an acceptable robust mitigation to the absence of GADSS aircraft equipment is provided by implemented space-based ADS-B requirements.

There are several States who have already notified ICAO of differences to 6.18.1, as recorded in the ICAO Electronic Filing Of Differences (EFOD) system (see the FAA position presented above), as well as many States who have or will grant exemptions from the applicable national GADSS requirements (see the EASA position presented above).

In view of ensuring the uninterrupted operation of international commercial air transport in a safe and controlled environment, airlines and CAAs are invited to consider the below information in their application for and approval of temporary exemptions to the mentioned ICAO Standard.

State Adoption Map

 

This Global Map represents the “to-date” information shared with IATA regarding the “by-State” regulatory implementation of the ICAO GADSS ADT Standard.

> Find the list of countries (pdf)

Disclaimer

The information displayed on this map stems from data shared with IATA by various States’ Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAs), Aircraft Manufacturers (OEMs) and Airlines. The information contained is provided for general information purposes and ‘as it’. While IATA undertook an extensive review of the data to ensure the accuracy and reliability, IATA shall not be held responsible for any inaccuracies, or consequences emerged from decision-making or actions-taken by any parties based on this information. 

Click on the map to enlarge.

State adoption map

 

 

Latest Updates