A boat with hundreds of people on board was spotted 120 miles south of Lampedusa, later rescued by the “Mare Nostrum” operation. During the search operation, carried out using various onboard sensors in a vast sea area, approximately 120 miles south of the island of Lampedusa, the crew located several small boats and fishing vessels with hundreds of people on board, heading north towards the Italian coast. The new wave of sightings was reported to the operational centre of the Naval Squad Command, which dispatched naval units from the Navy and patrol boats from the Coast Guard to the area for subsequent rescue operations. The Air Force aircraft remained in the area until the arrival of the naval units, and the patrol boats constantly monitored the vessels. The contribution of the Atlantic aircraft from the 41st Wing was significant, as thanks to its high speed of intervention, a few hours after taking off from the Sigonella air base, it located the boats carrying migrants en route to our coasts, thus enabling all necessary preparations to be made in good time.
