A method and apparatus for handoff to a rescue channel is introduced without the need to send and receive handoff control messages. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, coordination of the rescue procedure at the infrastructure (450, 350, 351, 352) and mobile station (330) is provided first by disabling the mobile transmitter followed by subsequent detection of signal loss and frame erasures at the serving cells (311), then by enabling the mobile transmitter followed by subsequent detection of signal by a rescue cell (310, 312, 313, 314), and finally by enabling the rescue cell channel transmitter followed by subsequent detection and reception of signal and frames by the mobile station (330).