It is after 60 minutes that you declare a plane in distress, not 30 minutes — Security expert
A retired security expert, Col. Festus Aboagye, has clarified the procedures for declaring an aircraft in distress, following questions about the timing of responses when a plane goes off radar. His comments came during an interview on Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, August 16, 2025.
“It is after 60 minutes that you declare the distress, it is not 30 minutes,” Col. Aboagye explained.
Addressing misconceptions that a plane immediately encounters danger when it disappears from radar, he said:
“There is a suggestion that the aircraft went off the radar; therefore, something might have happened. When a plane goes off radar, it doesn’t mean it encountered an accident or is under stress.”
He further noted that radar limitations can affect tracking:
“ICAO had said 30 minutes alert, 30 minutes stress. When a plane is off radar, it does not necessarily mean that the plane has crashed.
“It simply means that the plane is flying at a height or in a terrain where the radar cannot detect it, anywhere between 1,000 feet up to 3,000 feet or maybe under 1,000 feet, radars cannot reach the helicopter. It didn’t mean the plane crashed 14 mins after takeoff, no.”
Col. Aboagye outlined the official procedural timeline for declaring an aircraft under stress:
“So, procedurally after 10:02 within thirty minutes which is the first indication that you have not found the aircraft and cannot find it—that’s 10:32—then another 30 minutes which is 11:02. If the aircraft has still not been contacted, then a distress call is made. So, materially any call or response from anybody should have begun at 11:02.”
