Aircrews and pilots are frequently the first to see oil spills on water. They provide critical eyes in the sky for U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) response teams and NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration. Oil spill responders use a common terminology for describing and reporting oil spills. This lesson teaches aircrews how to identify, describe, and report spills using that terminology. Misidentifying natural events as oil spills is a common, and sometimes expensive, mistake. This lesson also points out common false positives when trying to identify oil spills.
While our primary audience for this lesson is aircrews, other flight crew members may find this lesson useful, including personnel from Incident Management Divisions and the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
In the event that a spill has been reported, pilots and aircrews may find themselves supporting a mission with trained oil spill observers on board. This lesson also provides information on how to work most effectively with those observers to ensure a successful mission.
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At the end of this lesson, the learner will be able to do the following:
- Accurately report oil sightings using standard terminology
- Provide the critical information most useful to pollution responders
- Recognize false positives
- Work effectively with trained observers
oil spill, oil slick, sheen, color, structure, transparent sheen, silver sheen, rainbow sheen, metallic sheen, dark oil, emulsified oil, streamers, convergence line, windrows, patches, tarballs, no structure, false positives, observers
