Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center

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Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center
Kentro Sintonismu Erevnas ke Diasosis
Κέντρο Συντονισμού Έρευνας και Διάσωσης
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Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center logo
JRCC overview
Formed 7 August 1995; 28 years ago (1995-08-07)[1]
Jurisdiction Nicosia FIR
Headquarters Larnaca, Cyprus Cyprus[2]
Motto ΘΑΡΣΕΙ ΚΙΝΔΥΝΕΥΟΥΣΙ ΒΟΗΘΕΙΝ
Ministers responsible
  • Mr. Christoforos Fokaides[3], Minister of Defence
  • Mr. Marios Demetriades[5], Minister of Communications & Works
JRCC executive
  • Captain (NAVY) Costas Fitiris[4], Commander
Parent JRCC Ministry Of Defence of the Republic of Cyprus
Website www.mod.gov.cy/mod/cjrcc.nsf/index_en/index_en?OpenDocument
Footnotes
Cyprus Nation Wide call number 1441

The Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center or JRCC Larnaca (Greek: Κέντρο Συντονισμού Έρευνας και Διάσωσης) is an independent agency of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Cyprus and its primary mission is to organize the Cyprus Republic Search and Rescue (SAR) system, to co-ordinate, to control and direct SAR operations in the region that the Cyprus JRCC is responsible for (which coincides with the Nicosia FIR), so that people, whose lives are at risk as a result of aviation or maritime accidents, can be located and rescued in the least amount of time.[6]

This is achieved by coordinating all the different agencies involved such as the Cyprus Police Aviation Unit, the Cyprus Police Port and Marine Police, the Cyprus National Guard Naval Command, the Cyprus National Guard Air Force Command, the Cyprus Civil Defence and other secondary Units,[7] acting as a communications agent between them, so that they do not conduct overlapping searches and waste time by searching areas already searched by other units and in general help all the different units operate as a single larger in numbers unit, eliminating any other problems that might occur when many different units operate without any communications between them.

It reports directly to the operational control of the Minister of Defence[8] and it is staffed by qualified personnel of the Cyprus National Guard, mainly from the branches of the Navy and the Air Force. All logistic and technical support is the responsibility of the Ministry of Communications & Works.

JRCC is located in the city of Larnaca near the port, on the 11th floor of the "Irida No.3" building. Find JRCC on the map here.

History

The Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center was established by Law 5(III)/94 and started operating on a trial 24-hour basis on the 7th of August 1995 as an independent unit of the Cyprus Air Force Command.
On March 1, 2002 by decision of the Ministry Cabinet the JRCC undertook formally the responsibility for organizing, coordinating and monitoring, search and rescue operations, in the region that the Republic of Cyprus is responsible for.
The JRCC functioned as such until the 26th of July, 2010. Following the relevant opinion of Attorney General for the provisions of Law 5 (III) / 1994 (on Research - Rescue Ratification Act) JRCC reports directly to the Minister of Defence and operates as an independent agency of the Ministry of Defence.[9]

Cyprus search and rescue region (SRR)

The Cyprus search and rescue region (SRR) coincides with the Nicosia FIR as described in the current Air Navigation Plan of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as shown below:

Distress frequencies

The internationally established frequencies to be used for Distress and Safety and monitored by Search and Rescue are:[10]

  • 518 kHz NAVTEX (Maritime safety information)
  • 121.5 MHz International civil aviation distress frequency
  • 243.0 MHz International military aviation distress frequency
  • 156.8 MHz (CH-16) International maritime call and distress frequency
  • 156.525 MHz (CH-70)
  • 2187.5 kHz
  • 4207.5 kHz
  • 6312.0 kHz
  • 8414.5 kHz
  • 12577.0 kHz
  • 16804.5 kHz
  • 2182 kHz International maritime call and distress frequency on MF
  • 406.025 MHz Transmission frequency of EPIRB, ELT and PLB of the COSPAS-SARSAT satellite system

JRCC Larnaca maintains continued monitoring of the following frequencies:

  • 121.5 MHz VHF/AM
  • 134.0 MHz VHF/AM (Common of Initial Contact with JRCC)
  • 243.0 MHz UHF/AM
  • 255.0 MHz UHF/AM (Common of Initial Contact with JRCC)
  • 156.8 MHz (CH-16) VHF/FM
  • 2182 kHz MF/HF

The DSC frequencies mentioned above are monitored by Cyprus Coast Station (Cyprus Radio)

  • 518 kHz NAVTEX

Note that: JRCC uses the NATO phonetic alphabet for communicating characters in English and the standard Greek phonetic alphabet (Ελληνικό φωνητικό αλφάβητο) for communicating characters in Greek.[11]

See also

References

External links