BALEARICS HOSTS MAJOR INTERNATIONAL RESCUE EXERCISE

PALMA
SPANISH, French and Italian military and civilian personnel will be taking part in a major international air and sea rescue exercise in the Balearics over the next two days.

Throughout yesterday, air sea rescue aircraft from the three participating countries flew into operation headquarters at Son San Joan air force base next to Palma airport ahead of the exercise commencing this morning.

Operation “Cernia 2009” will involve international air forces as well as aircraft and vessels from the national air sea rescue service, the Guardia Civil, the Red Cross, the Palma maritime rescue centre, the Director General for Emergencies in Palma and troops from the various regiments based in the Balearics.

The operation is going to be split into two phases. The first is going to be a major maritime rescue exercise and the second will be a land based operation.

The maritime operation will be launched at 9am this morning and involve two aircraft going down in the sea off the south west of Majorca.
The second exercise, which will take place tomorrow, involves a number of paratroopers being forced to jump from a crippled aircraft over the Sierra de Tramuntana mountain range.