On Sept. 24, 2010, Grosseto airbase, home of the 4° Stormo of the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force, ItAF), hosted the Media Day of the Exercise Grifone 2010. Coordinated by the COFA (Comando Operativo Forze Aeree, Operative Air Forces Command) of Poggio Renatico, this year’s edition of the multinational SAR (Search And Rescue) exercise, took place between Sept. 20 and 23, simulating a scenario in which 2 military aircraft (each with 2 POB) had been involved in a mid-air in the area surrounding Mt. Amiata, in southern Tuscany and the 4 crew members had to be found and rescued asap.
Although only four helicopters attended the Media Day (one AB-212 of the 670^ Squadriglia of Decimomannu, one “212” of the MIATM (Missione Italiana Assistenza Tecnico Militare di Malta), one AB-412 of the 4° Elinucleo Carabinieri from Pisa, and one Super Puma of the Armée de l’Air from Solenzara) a huge variety of choppers took part in the exercise: 1 AB-212AM of the 670^ Squadriglia – Decimomannu, 1 AB-212AM of the MIATM based in Malta, 1 AB-212 of the 3° Reparto Volo PS based in Bologna, 1 AB-412 4° Elinucleo CC based in Pisa, 1 AB-412 Centro Operativo Aereo Corpo Forestale dello Stato based in Rieti, 1 AW-139 of the SUEM (Servizio Urgenze Emergenza Medica) based in Grosseto, 1 AB-412 of the Elinucleo VVFF based in Arezzo, 1 AS-332 Super Puma of the Armée de l’Air (French Air Force, FAF) from Solenzara and 1 HD-19/ AS-330J Puma of the 801° Esq. of the Spanish Air Force, from Palma de Maiorca.
Giovanni Maduli, thanks to the kind support of Capt. Davide Tortora responsible of the Media Operations Center of Ex. Grifone 2010, attended the Briefing and the air display of the Grosseto Media Day and took the following pictures of the event.
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