Spectacular anti-terrorism exercise involving the State Police and the Harbour Master's Office. The intervention was simulated on board a Tirrenia ferry sailing towards Cagliari, which had previously been boarded by an armed commando that, evading security checks, had seized control of the bridge and taken the crew and passengers hostage.
Having received the news of the ship hijacking, the Crisis Room of the Ministry of the Interior alerted the State Police’s Central Security Operational Unit, simultaneously requesting assistance for the police operation from the Italian Air Force and the Coast Guard. An Operations Room was immediately set up at the port of Civitavecchia with representatives from the NOCS, the Air Force Operational Protection Unit and the Coast Guard, in order to manage the crisis situation, plan the intervention and coordinate the forces on the ground. The recapture of the ship and the liberation of the hostages were carried out by the simultaneous boarding, while the vessel was in motion, of two N.O.C.S. Operational Teams: a first team landed on the stern of the ferry from an assault rubber boat, and the other was lowered using a fast-rope rapid descent technique directly onto the bridge deck from an HH-3F helicopter of the Air Force’s 15th Wing. The training activity highlighted the potential of the
‘joint venture’ highlighting the added value of the operational synergy between the State Police, the Italian Air Force and the Harbour Master's Corps in facing a potential terrorist threat through the profitable integration of air, naval and land assets. The operation also involved two helicopters from the State Police Flight Department carrying N.O.C.S. sniper marksmen with covering duties, State Police naval units, one of which was used as a mobile command and control centre for the operation in direct contact with the Operations Room and all the assets involved, and units from the Harbour Master's Corps which guaranteed safety at sea during all phases of the operation. The 85th Combat S.A.R. Centre (
Search and Rescue) of Pratica di Mare, from which the helicopter that took part in the exercise came, is one of the Italian Air Force's air rescue centres, subordinate to the 15th Wing based in Cervia. Like the other centres in Cervia, Brindisi, Gioia del Colle and Decimomannu, it guarantees 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the search and rescue of flight crews in difficulty, while also contributing to public utility activities such as the search for missing persons at sea or in the mountains, emergency medical transport of patients in life-threatening conditions and the rescue of severely traumatised individuals. Since its establishment to date, the crews of the 15th Wing have saved more than 7,000 lives in danger. Article from Corriere della Sera
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