In pursuance of the plan of activities relating to forces preparation approved by Chief of Staff of the People’s National Army, for the year 2024-2025, the Territory Air Defense Forces Command directed on May 14th 2024, a Search and Rescue exercise of an aircraft in distress called “SAREX-2025”, in the Wilaya of Saida/ 2ndMR. Observers from different civil and military structures of the said Wilaya were a part of this exercise.
The aim from the organization of “SAREX-2025” is to test the civilian and military authorities’ disaster response, oversee the implementation of the National Search and Rescue Plan as well as the assessment of the Search and Rescue operation management and coordination.
The scenario of the “SAREX-2025” consists in simulating the crash of a civil passenger aircraft, which took off from Oran Airport to Bechar Airport, due to a failure on the right engine that occurred while the plane was flying over the surrounding of the city of Hassasna Wilaya de Saida/2nd MR where a state of emergency was declared by the air traffic control organizations.
Following this, the Search and Rescue Operation will be planned and conducted by the Main Search and Rescue Coordination Center which has drawn up and sent a search and rescue operation plan to military and civilian structures involved.
Once the alert received, an air asset belonging to the Air Forces is used to carry out the Search and Rescue mission, locate the debris and release survival kits. After that; the ORSEC Plan is launched by the Wali of Saida, who is territorially competent , which implied the triggering of the Plan parameters, the establishment of , a stationary command center at the Wilaya headquarter, an operation command center , and an advance medical center; as well as the mobilization of all adequate material and human means, in coordination with all parties involved.
Finally, it has to be noted that the exercise has been performed with success and has achieved its intended goals, that consist in strengthening the acquired knowledge, exchanging experiences and also testing the concerned structures level of readiness when addressing this type of disasters. Also preparing them to address real search and rescue situations.
