Air Crash Rescue Complicated by Latitude, Longitude

When a Florida pilot crashed his helicopter into the Florida Everglades last Saturday, his first telephone call for help went to a relative, setting off a confused and lengthy rescue, complicated by a dispatcher’s misunderstanding of geography. The incident points out the need for dispatcher training to interpret locations beyond street names and intersections, including latitude and longitude. Pilot Mark Palmieri was safely hoisted from the crash site by a rescue helicopter about five hours after his early-morning crash, seven miles from the nearest roadway. Although a Broward County sheriff’s spokesman claims his agency had only a “vague” location, sources say Palmieri eventually provided dispatchers with his latitude and longitude. However, the dispatchers misunderstood the format of his location—it was given in decimal format, but dispatchers believed it was in minutes-seconds format. The difference mistakenly sent rescuers several miles to the northwest to search desolate swampland. The sources also say there was also a delay in notifying the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), as dispatchers contacted various other public safety agencies to assist. At some point the latitude-longitude mistake was discovered, and a helicopter crew that had been searching for the victim quickly located the crash site. Read more about latitude and longitude after the break.

Latitude and longitude are used to describe a specific location on the globe, and are most commonly displayed to dispatchers who answer cellular telephone calls. However, the proliferation of smartphones and handheld global positioning system (GPS) units has increased the possibility that a public safety dispatcher will have to interpret a latitude and longitude and locate a victim on a map.

Latitude and longitude is traditionally expressed in degrees, minute and seconds (122°18’22”), but can also be expressed in decimal degrees (122.1274578). Latitude indicates a position either north or south from the equator, in degrees from zero to 90. Longitude indicates a position either east or west from the Greenwich meridian near London, in degrees from zero to 180.

Therefore, a proper location consists of both a latitude number and direction, either north or south, and longitude number and direction, either east or west. A seemingly minor mistake in either the number or direction can substantially mis-locate a victim’s position. In addition, mistaking the format of the latitude and longitude would also mis-locate the victim’s position.

When giving locations using degrees and minutes, it would be spoken as, “Latitude one hundred and twenty-two degrees, eighteen minutes, twenty-eight seconds west. Longitude thirty-eight degrees, forty-three minutes, nineteen seconds north.”

Alternatively, a location could be given in decimal degrees as, “Latitude one twenty-two point four, seven, three, five, eight, six west. Longitude thirty-seven point four, three, nine, six, one, two north.”

Resources

If you know the latitude and longitude, you can plot it using most popular on-line mapping services (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) using the decimal format. In some cases the mapping services also accept the minutes-seconds format, but require a particular entry format. For example, Google requires this format for minutes-seconds:

37 53'10"N,122 12'13"W  or
37 53 19.11 N,122 12 13.63W
You can convert between the degrees-seconds and decimal formats using this FCC Web page.
If you know the location and need to determine the latitude and longitude, in Google Maps you can move the cursor to the location and control-click (Mac) or right-click (Windows). A pop-up window will display the latitude and longitude in decimal format. Other mapping services have a similar feature.