Search and Rescue (SAR) training to RCC operational officers, of member states of the Trans-Balkan Regional Advisory Committee on SAR (RASARAC).

The training was attended by 16 representatives from Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary.

The RASARAC Trans-Balkan Committee, which includes 13 countries in total, aims to harmonise, standardise and improve practices and procedures for the successful conduct of cross-border SAR operations. The Republic of Cyprus has been supporting this effort since the first day of the Committee's establishment, culminating in the signing in November 2018 of a Memorandum of Understanding between the JRCC and RASARAC.

The training to SAR Operations Coordination related issues is the 5th one provided since the signing of the relevant MoU, being a practical demonstration of the contribution of JRCC Larnaca to the international Search and Rescue community.

Moreover, providing such training programmes, enhances the efforts by RoC to establish a SAR Training Centre in Cyprus, which would be certified by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), making it an International Centre of expertise in SAR related matters.

It is worth noting that the participants had the opportunity to attend a SAR exercise while on board OPV “IOANNIDIS” of the Cyprus Naval Command, between the OPV and a helicopter of the 460 SAR Sq of the Cyprus Air Force Command of the General Staff, in the sea area of Limassol Bay.