Aireon and the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) have begun pre-registration for their free, global Aircraft Locating and Emergency Response Tracking (ALERT) service for the aviation industry.

The service is developed to provide location data for automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B)-equipped aircraft that is in a distress state or having trouble communicating.

It can be used by aviation stakeholders to receive precise position reports on aircraft without paying fees.

The Aireon ALERT service, which will be operated by IAA’s North Atlantic Communications Centre in Ballygirreen, County Clare in Ireland, can be used by air navigation service providers (ANSPs), aircraft operators, regulators as well as search and rescue organisations.

The service is facilitated by Aireon’s space-based ADS-B solution and is scheduled to be operational by the first quarter of next year.

“Our facility will be providing Aireon ALERT services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”

Irish Aviation Authority CEO Peter Kearney said: “Our facility will be providing Aireon ALERT services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

“As long as an aircraft is broadcasting on 1090MHz ADS-B, we will be able to locate it anywhere worldwide. This is a unique and secure cloud-based service, designed to the highest data protection standards.”

In addition, all the aviation stakeholders, even those who are not customers of Aireon and IAA, can use the ALERT service, but they have to register their entries.

The registered stakeholders can contact the IAA facility to obtain the last known position of their aircraft.

They can also receive a host of related information including a map of the last 15 minutes of flight, with one plot per minute and a four-dimensional report such as altitude, latitude, longitude and time information.