First mission for the Swedish Coastguard Dash8

(BRUSSELS2) The Swedish Coast Guard's maritime patrol aircraft is now part of the European anti-piracy operation "Atalanta". The Dash 8 Q-300, equipped with high-tech cameras, carried out its first official mission on Monday, March 8.

He had, in fact, already been to the baptism of fire during the successive arrests of pirates by the frigate Nivose, the Italian flagship Etna, and the on-board protection teams of the French tuna vessels Torre Giulia and Trevignon.

According to the officer commanding the Swedish group " this first 6-hour flight was particularly successful due to suspicious activity in the area. Movement which turned out to be suspicious pirates who were very close to a fishing boat. We succeeded in alerting the Force Commander and "documenting" this incident " he added.

It is the first time, it should be specified, that a plane of the coastguards (civilian corps), takes part in an international operation of this type. It is the second civilian team to be integrated into the military operation in this way (along with pilots and private observers from Luxembourg planes). The Dash8 is based, like the Luxembourg Merlin IIIs, at Mahé airport in the Seychelles.

(NVP)