Any distress which is transmitted falsely, shall be cancelled immediately. If not, can initiate legal action against the vessel. Hence the Master and officers shall be well versed with the procedure for cancellation of distress alert and such instructions shall be conspicuously posted near to the equipment. Following shall be the procedure to cancel the distress alert on VHF, MF HF, INMARSAT C AND EPIRB-

1. VHF
a. Switch off the transmitter immediately
b. Switch to VHF Ch 16 and broadcast to all stations in a format below -
ALL STATIONS ALL STATIONS ALL STATIONS
This is in
Cancel my DSC Alert of
Name of Master, Call sign, MMSI, date and time

2. MF
a. Switch off the transmitter immediately
b. Switch to RT frequency 2182 kHz and broadcast to all stations in a format below -
ALL STATIONS ALL STATIONS ALL STATIONS
This is in
Cancel my DSC Alert of
Name of Master, Call sign, MMSI, date and time

3. HF
a. Switch off the transmitter immediately
b. Cancellation alert shall be sent to all the RT frequencies corresponding to DSC frequencies on which alert was sent
ALL STATIONS ALL STATIONS ALL STATIONS
This is in
Cancel my DSC Alert of
Name of Master, Call sign, MMSI, date and time

4. INMARSAT-C
a. Stop the distress transmission
b. Notify the RCC by sending the Distress Priority Message
c. Format should be -

cancel my distress alert of ,

5. EPIRB
a. Switch of the equipment to stop the transmission
b. Master to contact the nearest Coast station or Land Earth Station (LES) / RCC and then cancel