48Duties of a person hearing an urgency or distress signal

48 Duties of a person hearing an urgency or distress signal

 48.1 A person who hears an urgency or distress signal must, if it is safe to do so, continue to listen on the radio frequency on which it was received and must not resume normal radio service until:

(a) if no message follows the signal — the end of at least 5 minutes; or

(b) if a message follows the signal — the person has told the master of the ship details of the message and the master has permitted resumption of normal radio service.

 48.2 The person in charge of the ship radio station may resume normal communication on frequencies other than that used for the urgency or distress communication when a message that follows the activation of a DSC or EGC distress alert:

(a) is not addressed to all radio stations; or

(b) is addressed to all ships in a geographical area that does not include the current position of the ship.