Personal life-saving appliances
Thermal protective aid (TPA)
A bag of low-conductivity material that a survivor climbs into in the boat or raft, to stop the remaining body heat from draining away.
Key facts
- Limits heat loss by convection and evaporation for a person already out of the water.
- Covers the whole body of a person wearing a lifejacket, except the face. If it has no sewn-in gloves, it must also cover the hands.
- It unpacks and is donned without help, already in the survival craft or the rescue boat.
- It does not replace a lifejacket: the rule speaks of covering a person who already has one on. If the TPA impairs swimming, the survivor must be able to take it off in the water within 2 minutes.
- It belongs to the equipment of lifeboats and liferafts: in a boat there is one for 10% of the persons the boat is permitted to carry, or two, whichever is greater.
Technical parameters
- Material
- waterproof, with thermal conductance of not more than 7800 W/(m²·K)
- Working range
- functions properly at air temperatures from minus 30 to plus 20°C
- Removal in the water
- in no more than 2 minutes, if it impairs swimming
- Body coverage
- the whole body of a person in a lifejacket except the face, and without sewn-in gloves also the hands
- Use
- over a person wearing a lifejacket; it does not replace one
Watch out
A thermal protective aid is not an immersion suit. The suit is donned before entering the water and protects in the water; the TPA serves a person already pulled out, in the boat or on the raft.
Legal basis
LSA Code section 2.5; the number carried in a boat: LSA Code 4.4.8.31.
This is not a legal text: when in doubt, the current wording of the Convention and the LSA Code decides.