A night of intense activity for the crews of the 15th Wing of the Italian Air Force, search and rescue centres always ready to intervene throughout the national territory in favour of people in difficulty or in danger of life.
This night, an HH-139B helicopter from the 82nd SAR (Search and Rescue) Centre of the Italian Air Force, based at Trapani airport, intervened to urgently transport one person who had suffered a heart attack and a trauma patient from the island of Pantelleria to Trapani hospital.
The mission was coordinated by the Aerospace Operations Command of Poggio Renatico (Ferrara), which ordered the helicopter's take-off at the request of the Prefecture of Trapani. The crew, with a doctor and a nurse from the hospital on board, took off for Pantelleria for the first mission around 11:30 PM. Upon reaching the location, the heart attack patient, a 59-year-old man, was embarked and immediately transported to the hospital in Trapani. Immediately afterwards, the helicopter took off again for Pantelleria to assist the second patient, a 17-year-old boy with a displaced fracture. The second mission concluded with the drop-off of the injured young man at the hospital in Trapani at 4 AM, before returning to base and resuming national search and rescue readiness.
At the same time, another complex search and rescue mission was activated by the Rescue Coordination Centre of the Poggio Renatico Aerospace Operations Command in favour of a missing hiker in the mountains in the Col Nudo area, in the province of Pordenone, in conjunction with the National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps. An HH-139B helicopter from the 83rd SAR Group took off shortly after midnight from its home base in Cervia and, after a stop at an airfield near the search area to board two CNSAS technicians, headed to the zone to search for the missing person. The man, located thanks to the synergy between all the rescue teams involved in the operation, was recovered by the Italian Air Force crew using a winch shortly after 1 am and released in good health at the same Claut airfield from where the rescue had departed.
From its formation to the present day, the crews of the 15th Wing have saved thousands of people in life-threatening danger. The Wing guarantees, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the search and rescue of flight crews in difficulty, also contributing to public utility activities such as the search for missing persons at sea or in mountains, the emergency medical transport of patients in imminent danger of life, and the rescue of severely injured individuals, operating even in complex weather conditions. Since 2018, the Department has also acquired AIB (Wildfire Fighting) capability, contributing to the prevention and fight against fires throughout the national territory within the framework of the joint forces deployed by the Defence.
From the 15th Wing in Cervia, in addition to the 82nd SAR Centre in Trapani, also dependent on it and dispersed across the national territory, are the 80th SAR Centre in Decimomannu (Cagliari), the 83rd SAR Flight Group, located in Cervia, the 84th SAR Centre in Gioia del Colle (Bari), and the 85th SAR Centre in Pratica di Mare (Rome).
At the following link is the video of the activity: