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In order to be airborne at 0800 the crew start their day at 0630 with a mission-specific briefing consisting of weather reports, details of the flight plan, what targets to expect, and information from other agencies such as the Naval Service
or Customs. Our mission that day was fisheries protection. In maritime patrol terms all
vessels operating in the patrol area are known as ‘targets’, and on any given day there could be hundreds of targets in the waters
the aircraft is covering, ranging from fishing boats to cargo vessels. Thankfully on our trip the weather was quite calm over the patrol area and looking out of the window we could see blue sea stretching in all directions. Small fishing boats disappeared from view every time they rolled with the waves, while larger cargo vessels with Irish, Spanish, Russian and Japanese flags transited the area at a steady pace. ‘On one of these
patrols we normally climb to 16,000ft, which allows our search radar to scan the surface out to 370kms,’explained Capt Moore. ‘Once we have scanned and located all our targets, we then descend to a lower level to visually identify each vessel. We note their registration, call sign, port of origin, heading, speed, position and activity. If the target is a fishing vessel, we can then check whether they are
An Cosantóir June .dfmagazine.ie www 2011
