Australia — Indonesian National Defence Forces personnel complete SAR course

Eigh­teen mem­bers of the Indone­sian Nation­al Defence Forces (TNI) have com­plet­ed a mar­itime Search and Res­cue (SAR) air-drop course held in Ade­laide last week. br/>
The TNI mem­bers — com­pris­ing pilots, load mas­ters and life sup­port fit­ters from one Navy and five Air Force fly­ing squadrons — gained skills in fixed wing air deliv­ery of SAR equip­ment in emergencies.br/>
The course pro­vid­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty for per­son­nel from TNI, the Aus­tralian Defence Force (ADF) and the Aus­tralian Mar­itime Safe­ty Author­i­ty (AMSA) to work togeth­er, share knowl­edge and gain skills in drop­ping SAR equip­ment from air­craft into the ocean.br/>
Brigadier Ian Erring­ton, Defence Inter­na­tion­al Pol­i­cy Divi­sion, said that the defence rela­tion­ship with Indone­sia was an impor­tant one for Aus­tralia and that train­ing had pro­vid­ed ben­e­fits to both countries.br/>
“It’s a plea­sure to see our respec­tive organ­i­sa­tions shar­ing knowl­edge of Search and Res­cue skills,” Brigadier Erring­ton said.br/>
“Drop­ping SAR equip­ment from an air­craft so that it lands pre­cise­ly in the desired area can be dif­fi­cult, espe­cial­ly in poor weath­er con­di­tions. br/>
“The SAR drop course also has the ben­e­fit of devel­op­ing friend­ships and net­works between TNI, the ADF and AMSA that can be called upon in the future if required.“br/>
The course was fund­ed through the Defence Coop­er­a­tion Pro­gram and deliv­ered by AMSA at the South Aus­tralian State Emer­gency Ser­vice train­ing facil­i­ty at Ade­laide Air­port. br/>
Par­tic­i­pat­ing per­son­nel were pre­sent­ed with cer­tifi­cates on com­ple­tion of the course by Brigadier Ian Erring­ton and AMSA’s Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Emer­gency Response, Mr John Young. br/>
Media contacts:br/> Defence Media Liai­son: 02 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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