Location of an Aircraft in Distress Repository (LADR)

What is LADR?  

Click here to access the LADR 

The Location of an Aircraft in Distress Repository (LADR) enables operators to meet the requirements of Annex 6 — Operation of Aircraft, Part I — International Commercial Air Transport — Aeroplanes, Chapter 6, 6.18.3 to make position information of a flight in distress available to appropriate organizations, as established by the State of the Operator, while also meeting the expectation from the search and rescue (SAR) community that such information will be held in a single place such that information from different autonomous distress tracking (ADT) systems would be collected together, thereby facilitating quick access to the last known position of the aircraft.

There will be three main categories of LADR stakeholders. An individual entity may fit into one or more of the above stakeholders (e.g. an airline may be a LADR contributor and also a LADR data user).

• LADR administrator;
• LADR contributors (data providers to LADR) inclusive of the developmental submitter, (4.1.2 refers); 
• LADR data users (data consumers to LADR).

Where are we?

* Disclaimer: The LADR has been developed by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL), in close cooperation with ICAO. the link is redirected to the LADR hosted by EUROCONTROL.

How to apply for LADR stakeholders?

Process for contributors to apply for connection to the LADR system 

The LADR is designed to collect all position information from an aircraft in distress, regardless of the specific nature of the equipment that is installed on the aircraft. Equipment manufacturers or organizations that collect this information directly from the aircraft will therefore need to establish a connection with the LADR in order to provide position information as soon as it becomes available.

In order for a contributor to connect to the LADR the following steps will be needed:

1. Provide evidence of their suitability as a contributor

LADR contributors will be those organizations who either have system solutions meeting the requirements of Annex 6, Part I, 6.18 that have been approved for use by a State; or are able to provide data to the LADR in accordance with the requirements defined by the LADR administrator (ICAO).

Contact may be established with the LADR administrator using the email address aircrafttracking [at] icao.int (aircrafttracking[at]icao[dot]int) in order to start this process.  A State in the process of granting an approval to such a contributor may also contact ICAO to initiate this process.

Documentary evidence of the approval of the system, by a State, or the ability of the organization to supply LADR data will be required at this stage.

2. Provide contact details and obtain contributor connection details

Each new contributor will need to provide the contact details of an individual who will be the focal point, responsible to maintain communication between the ICAO administrator and themselves, in order that any information or documents that are required can be sent to the correct person.

Following the nomination of the organization focal point, they will receive a unique contributor code and the latest documentation relating to the LADR API and connection details.

3. Establish connection to the LADR in developmental submitter mode for testing

Following the receipt of the connection documentation, the contributor will then develop their systems to connect to the LADR development area. Eurocontrol, as developer and host, will then contact the contributor to establish a test process by which the contributor can demonstrate that their system meets all of the technical requirements as a data contributor to LADR.

4. Notification of accreditation as a contributor

Following completion of the testing, ICAO will inform the State responsible that the system has been accredited as a contributor to LADR, and inform the contributor directly of their accreditation.  Connection to the LADR operational system will then be approved and established.

Contributors who are authorized to provide information to LADR will also gain user access to view data in the LADR, although their access to view data will be limited to data that they have submitted. This is to ensure that they can confirm, directly, that the information transmitted has been successfully received and interpreted and is displayed correctly.

5. Ongoing accreditation

Once accredited, contributors will need to ensure that their system remains in compliance. Changes to the system that could impact the connection to the LADR will need to be documented and submitted for re-accreditation with additional testing being required to verify that there will be no adverse effects on the LADR.