Air rescue is just one of the services that the Air Force carries out, non-stop, every day, for the community and for the safety of the country
Mid-August is a day like any other for those who save lives. A helicopter and the crews of the 82 search and rescue center of the Air Force of Trapani Birgi are busy tonight, together with vehicles from the coast guard and the financial police, to search for a young Tunisian who disappeared at sea in the area of Torretta Granitola, locality in the municipality of Campobello di Mazara (TP).
The call to the operations room of the SAR (search and rescue) Center of Trapani, one of the Italian Air Force's search and rescue centers located on the national territory and ready to intervene 24 hours a day, arrived just before three. After less than an hour the helicopter, in contact and coordination with the maritime vehicles involved, was already flying over the area to try to locate the boy, thanks to the use by pilots and on-board operators of special night vision goggles.
After a first phase of research, unfortunately with a negative result, the helicopter is now flying again to continue the activity on the assigned stretch of sea.
The air rescue crews, moreover engaged in recent days in two spectacular rescue actions (one in Caserta for a paraglider who fell into a ravine and one in Sicily, in the Gypsy reserve, in favor of a hiker suffering from illness), they are not the only assets of the Air Force in readiness on this holiday, as happens exactly every day of the year. Pilots and specialists of the Air Defense departments are in fact ready from the bases of Grosseto, Gioia del Colle and Trapani to take off the Eurofighter fighters in a few minutes to intercept unauthorized aircraft to fly over the national airspace, off the scheduled routes or in emergency. Then there are the aircrafts and the crews of the transport departments, like the SAR colleagues, ready to take off to rescue the sick in danger of life or to transport organs and medical teams where necessary. There are men and women involved in air traffic control and in the air defense control centers, for the national meteorological service. All services carried out, silently but without stopping, every day of the year, for the safety of the country.