SEARCH AND RESCUE ACTIVITIES

The 56th Meeting of the European Air Navigation Planning Group (Paris, 24-27 November 2014) agreed to increase its support to improve Search and Rescue (SAR) activities in the ICAO European Region through the creation of the ICAO EUR Search and Rescue Task Force (ICAO EUR SAR/TF). The main goal of the SAR/ TF is to address, develop concepts and fill gaps in the SAR capabilities in the Region with the goal to improve the overall capability of the SAR system throughout the EUR Region.

The EUR/NAT Office is fully supporting the activities of the SAR Task Force. As part of its work programme, the second meeting of the EUR SAR/TF (Larnaca, Cyprus, 11 to 14 October 2016) organized, in addition to the regular two-day plenary meeting, a two-day Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX) with the support of the Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) in Larnaca, Cyprus.

This large scale multinational exercise, called “NEMESIS-2016,” was attended by participants and representatives from 15 states and 4 International Organizations. The SAR/TF members had the opportunity to witness this exercise in real time and gain the experience that should be actively taken into account in future projects of the Task Force.

Recently, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Regional SAR cooperation of Western Balkan States was signed during a Regional SAR Conference hosted by the Civil Aviation Directorate (CAD) of the Republic of Serbia and supported by Eurocontrol and the EUR/NAT Office. ICAO reaffirmed its commitment to cooperate with the SAR Advisory Committee activities.

This article was originally written for the ICAO EUR/NAT Office’s Newsletter (Issue 1) on May 2017. A full list of their newsletters can be found here.