AFSP-02 aircraft marshalling signals

What it is

What AFSP-02 covers

AFSP-02 is the NATO Allied Flight Safety Publication that standardizes aircraft marshalling signals - the hand and wand signals a person on the ground uses to direct an aircraft on the movement area - and the distinctive garment marshallers wear while giving them. Its own aim clause puts it plainly: the standard exists "to standardize aircraft marshalling signals and the distinctive garment to be worn by aircraft marshallers." STANAG 3117 is the agreement that gives it force: participating nations agree that marshalling will be conducted as the publication details, using the signals in its two annexes and a marshaller's garment that is preferably fluorescent international orange or yellow, except when operations dictate otherwise.

Annex A's signals cover all aircraft. Annex B adds the signals needed for hovering aircraft, VTOL aircraft and air cushion vehicles. Neither annex is reproduced on this page: the individual signals and what each one means are exactly what the publication exists to standardize, and describing them here would function as an instruction sheet rather than an explanation of the standard.

How it comes to bind

AFSP-02 binds through STANAG 3117 rather than by existing on its own. The publication's own Letter of Promulgation records it directly: "the agreement of nations to use this publication is recorded in STANAG 3117." A nation implements that agreement itself, and for a unit, airfield authority or contractor the obligation typically arrives as a tasking or a unit instruction to marshal on this basis, not as a document anyone signs individually.

Nations do not all apply it identically. The publication's own record of reservations names Luxembourg's Findel airport, ELLX, as using "ICAO Annex 2 and relevant EASA regulations to conduct aircraft marshalling" instead of the AFSP-02 set - a civil regime standing in for the NATO one at one specific airfield. The document also cautions that the reservations it records "may not be complete" and points readers to the NATO Standardization Documents Database for the current list.

What it requires, clause by clause

Chapter 1 sets out the marshaller's position: forward of the aircraft's left wing tip within the pilot's view for fixed-wing aircraft, or wherever the marshaller can best be seen by the pilot for helicopters. The same signal set may run the other way too - "the signals described in Annexes A and B may be used by the pilot, as appropriate, in a similar way to that indicated" - toward the marshaller.

Night signals mirror the day signals, with wands used in matched-colour pairs and kept dim rather than bright. The clause with an immediate safety consequence sits here: "during surface taxiing and parking the pilot will stop immediately when one or both of the marshaller's wands fail." That is not a judgement call for either party - a failed wand stops the aircraft.

NATO made an effort to conform its signals to ICAO's "to the maximum extent possible", but says plainly that some differ because of unique military operational considerations, and some are unique to military operations with no ICAO counterpart at all. Every signal in the annexes carries its own compliant or non-compliant marking, and an unmarked signal is NATO-only. A unit checking its marshalling training against AFSP-02 should expect that distinction carried into the training material itself, rather than treating every signal as internationally shared.

Scope divides cleanly between the two annexes: "the signals located in Annex A are applicable for all aircraft" and "the signals located in Annex B are applicable to hovering aircraft", extending, per Annex B's own title, to VTOL aircraft and air cushion vehicles as well.

How it is assessed

AFSP-02 names no certification, assessment or audit scheme, and no accredited body, notified body, government surveillance or self-declaration mechanism appears anywhere in the text. It is a shared vocabulary participating nations agree to use, not a scheme anyone is assessed against. What actually matters is operational: whether the pilot understands the signal given, by day or by wand at night, and whether the fail-safe stop is instinctive the moment a wand fails. A contractor or unit supporting a NATO airfield should expect to demonstrate this through its own training records, because no AFSP-02 certificate exists.

Standards it references

• [STANAG 3117](/standards/stanag-3117) - the NATO agreement, named in the Letter of

Promulgation, that records participating nations' agreement to use AFSP-02 and gives it force.