Darlington Volunteer Bushfire Brigade

Air Reconnaissance

To provide accurate and timely intelligence to the incident management team from aerial observation.

AIR OBSERVATION TEAM (CONT.)

Experience has shown that direct contact between the IMT and an airborne observer has limitations, mainly due the amount communicating traffic through this area and interpreting the aerial data stream. To overcome that problem the concept of an Aerial Observation Team (AOT) was developed, comprising the airborne Air Observer(AOb) and a ground based Air Intelligence Officer (AIO).

Both of these officers under go the same training background to appreciate the limitations in both areas and in fact can indeed be interchangeable, if needed.

AIR OBSERVER (AOb)

The Air Observer is the airborne member and responsible for recording by observation, accurate intelligence information on the wildfire environment and fire control progress from an aircraft. Normally the aircraft used will be a helicopter, however training and other duties may include the use of fixed-wing aircraft.

AIR INTELLIGENCE OFFICER

The Air Intelligence Officer is the ground based member and responsible for recording the air observed data, putting it into a user-friendly format and relaying it to the designated member of the IMT. Normally this person would report to the Planning Officer .

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