🔍 Key Concepts

• Inmarsat ship earth station distress button (“hot-key”) behavior • How the Rescue Coordination Center (RCC) that first receives your alert is actually selected • Difference between manual LES selection/updates and what is automatic in the GMDSS/Inmarsat system

💭 Think About

• Ask yourself: when you press the Inmarsat distress button, does the equipment rely on something the watch officer last programmed, or does it use an automatic network/system process? • Consider which part really needs to be reliable in an emergency: human menu choices, factory defaults, GPS position data, or network routing logic? • Think about how often ships cross NAVAREAS and whether it would be realistic (or safe) to depend on the operator to constantly update the correct Land Earth Station (LES).

✅ Before You Answer

• Verify how Inmarsat-C distress alerts are routed: is the first path determined by the selected LES, or does Inmarsat route them directly to the appropriate RCC based on other data? • Check whether GPS position actually chooses or changes the LES entry in the Distress Alert Update menu, or if it only provides position info inside the distress message itself. • Review whether manufacturers’ default settings are considered permanently correct, or whether flag administration and operator programming are still required for distress routing.