The mission was carried out by a crew on standby from the 82nd Search and Rescue Centre of Trapani.

Late this afternoon, a crew from the 82nd Search and Rescue (S.A.R.) Centre of the Italian Air Force took off from Trapani military airport to rescue a 41-year-old French man who had taken ill during a hike inside the Zingaro nature reserve and was in need of medical attention.

Following the request from the Sicilian Alpine and Speleological Rescue team of Trapani, the operations room of the Rescue Coordination Center (RCC) of the Aerospace Operations Command in Poggio Renatico (FE) ordered the immediate takeoff of the national SAR readiness duty crew with an HH-139B helicopter.

The helicopter landed at Castellammare del Golfo to take on board two mountain rescue operators before heading towards the operations area.

Upon arriving at the scene, the crew winched down the rescue specialist and operators, proceeding to retrieve the patient and immediately transport him to the sports ground in Castellammare del Golfo, where a 118 ambulance was waiting for his subsequent transfer to hospital.

Once the rescue was complete, the military crew returned to the Trapani base, where they resumed national search and rescue readiness duties. The operations were completed in a total of one hour of flight time.

The 82nd Search and Rescue Centre is one of the Units of the Italian Air Force's 15th Wing which guarantees, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, continuous search and rescue for aircrews in distress. It also contributes to public utility activities such as the search for missing persons at sea or in mountains, the urgent medical transport of patients in imminent danger of death, and the rescue of seriously injured individuals, operating even in marginal weather conditions.

In addition to the 82nd SAR Centre in Trapani, the 15th Wing of Cervia oversees—distributed across the entire national territory—the 80th SAR Centre of Decimomannu (Cagliari), the 83rd SAR Flight Group, located in Cervia, the 84th SAR Centre of Gioia del Colle (Bari) and the 85th SAR Centre of Pratica di Mare (Rome). Today, an HH-139B helicopter from the 82nd SAR (Search and Rescue) Centre of the Italian Air Force, based at the military airport of Trapani, intervened to rescue a man in the Macari area, south of San Vito Lo Capo (Trapani), together with a team from the Sicily Regional Service of the National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps.