Air Rescue training events such as SATER 1-22, which ended last March 15 in Borgo San Lorenzo (FI), have a fundamental purpose: to develop synergies and constantly improve common techniques and procedures in favor of the protection of human life.
With this premise, personnel and assets of all the Armed Forces (Italian Army, Navy, Air Force, Carabinieri) together with Guardia di Finanza, State Police and Fire Brigade, participated in an event with a clear inter-force character in Tuscany, inter-ministerial and inter-agency.
In Mugello, in the province of Florence, the personnel involved (about 150 crews, technicians, operators, logistical support personnel) measured themselves against a scenario, even at night, of search and rescue of a tourist plane which they had lost the tracks, and with two further distinct scenarios, for the recovery of a total of three injured hikers on the inaccessible surrounding mountain areas.
In an entire day of intense activity, in which medical and dog teams also took part, all the participants showed great involvement, which is the basis of the deep conviction of how important mutual knowledge is to prepare to face the most disparate cases. real. The SATER (acronym for Terrestrial Air Rescue), created to meet this need, is a training activity organized several times a year throughout the national territory through the aerospace operations command (COA) of the Air Force of Poggio Renatico (FE) together with national mountain and speleological rescue body (CNSAS), with the planning of the rescue coordination center - RCC of the COA.
The logistical effort expressed in the Advanced Base Station prepared by the AM military on the "Collina" airfield of Borgo San Lorenzo (FI), where the search and rescue teams (from CNSAS and Guardia di Finanza) used 8 aircraft: an HH-139 helicopter from 85 ° SAR center of the 15th wing of Pratica di Mare - Rome, of the Air Force and six other helicopters belonging to: the Italian Army (a UH-205 of the 4th "Altair" regiment of Bolzano of the Army Aviation), to the Navy Military (an SH-90A of the fifth group of the Luni Sarzana - Spezia Helicopter Station), to the Carabinieri (an AW-139 of the CC helicopter nucleus of Pisa), to the Guardia di Finanza (an AB-412 of the GdF air section of Pisa and a UH-169 of the 1st air group of the GdF of Pratica di Mare), the State Police (a UH-139 of the 8th flight department of the State Police of Florence) and the Fire Brigade (an AW-139 of the nucleus helicopters vv.f. of Bologna), while a U-208 aircraft of the Linate (AM) connection squadron e) provided support n in the designated research area, but did not board the teams.
The daytime activity, structured on a constant embarkation and disembarkation of land teams engaged in search and recovery of the injured in particularly inaccessible areas, was also followed by a nocturnal fraction, very qualifying in terms of sharing common techniques, means and procedures.
The aerial assets of SATER 1-22 were coordinated by the RCC, while the CNSAS of Tuscany prepared and coordinated the ground research teams, made up of extremely specialized volunteers with a great knowledge of the territory. “Each member, coming from the various State administrations, contributed with their skills and specificity to the success of SATER - said Colonel Alfonso Cipriano, director of the exercise - making the most of the training opportunity provided by it: knowing each other to work together makes us ready to intervene in real emergencies ".
