The flight activity took place as part of the air-naval device of the humanitarian mission "Mare Nostrum" to contribute to the strengthening of operations related to the control of migratory flows for the protection of human life with surveillance, search and rescue activities at sea . The aircraft, after taking off from Sigonella airport during the night, reached the area of operations for research activities in a vast sea area east of Sicily.
During patrolling, the lookouts and the various sensors available to the Atlantic allowed to identify in sequence three boats loaded with people on board of which one stopped at the mercy of the waves and the other two that proceeded, slowly and in apparent good navigability conditions , towards the Sicilian coasts. The purpose of Atlantic was to deal with imminent danger situations for boat occupants. The sightings, were immediately communicated to the operations center of Mare Nostrum in order to be able to formalize the rescuers that, meanwhile, have begun thanks to the intervention of a merchant precept by the head crew of the Atlantic.
The contribution of the aircraft of the 41 ° Stormo was significant, thanks to the high autonomy, range and speed of intervention, a few hours after takeoff from the Sigonella air base, it located the boats carrying migrants on board to our ships ribs, allowing you to start all the necessary setups in time.
Since 20 October 2013, the start date of the activities of Sigonella's 41 ° Stormo within the “Mare Nostrum” military humanitarian operation, the Atlantic has already carried out more than 100 missions in the Mediterranean over 600 missions .
Source: 41 ° Stormo Antisom- Sigonella (CT) - 1 ° m.llo Savoca Carmelo
