Airport fire fighting vehicles [Source: Wikicommons/Manchester Airport Fire Service, March 2015. Author: Russell Lee]

Description

The most common way to disseminate information during an emergency is the so-called “communication triangle” in which the controller gathers and relays all the necessary information from/to the flight crew and the ground teams (aircraft rescue and firefighting – ARFF).

With direct emergency communication, a new communication capability is provided to allow direct communication between the flight crew and ARFF. The controller remains in the communication loop but in a passive position.

Advantages

The direct communication between the flight crew and the ARFF offers a number of advantages over the standard communication loop: