The Coast Guard is currently unable to use the radio systems to communicate with ships. The emergency channel is also not working. This could potentially lead to dangerous situations. According to a spokesperson, it is exceptional for a malfunction to last this long.
The so-called VHF radio channels have been down since early Tuesday morning. There was still no solution in sight around 10:00 AM.
This means that ships cannot talk to the Coast Guard via those channels. The emergency channel is also not working. “If a ship makes a distress call, we cannot hear it, and therefore cannot respond to it,” says a Coast Guard spokesperson to NU.nl.
As a temporary solution, the Coast Guard has asked the traffic control centers at the ports and on the Wadden Islands to listen to the emergency channel. That still works there. If there is a distress call, those centers can pass it on to the Coast Guard. But that intermediate step takes time, the spokesperson acknowledges. That could potentially lead to dangerous situations.
The Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution (KNRM) is also helping. They are listening to the emergency channel at the rescue stations in Hindeloopen, Enkhuizen and Marken.
If a rescue operation is needed, the communication will be switched to telephone or the C2000 network. The latter is a communication system for the emergency services.
According to the spokesperson, it is exceptional that a malfunction lasts so long. Sometimes there is a brief malfunction, but it is usually resolved with a restart or a new login to the system. It is currently unclear what the cause of the current malfunction is and how long it will last.