Search and rescue

Search and rescue in the event of an aircraft accident is governed by the 1944 ICAO Convention (Annex 12) as well as by the ICAO rules. The Greek search and rescue area was designated by an ICAO Regional Air Navigation Agreement in 1952 and coincides with the Athinai FIR.

Regarding search and rescue in case of maritime incidents, Greece coordinates operations within the Athinai FIR ever since the latter was established in the 1950s. This reflects the geographical reality in the region, given the number of islands scattered around the Aegean Sea, enabling, from an operational point of view, the most effective and prompt provision of services for the protection of human life at sea. Furthermore, this is in accordance with the relevant recommendations of the IMO and the ICAO providing that Search and Rescue areas - for both aeronautical and maritime accidents - should coincide with the limits of the FIRs.

The maritime search and rescue region under Greek responsibility was also officially notified to the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO), predecessor of the IMO, in 1975. Moreover, upon signature and ratification of the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, 1979, Greece restated that its area of responsibility for maritime search and rescue coincides with the Athinai FIR and this declaration was included in the Greek Law 1844/1989 ratifying this Convention.

According to the above mentioned Convention of 1979, the areas of responsibility for maritime search and rescue are determined by agreement among the coastal states concerned. Within this framework, Greece has signed agreements for search and rescue services in cases of accidents at sea with Italy (2000), as well as Malta (2008) and Cyprus (2014), explicitly stipulating that the Greek area of responsibility coincides with the Athinai FIR, while the signature of agreements with other neighbouring states is still pending.

However, in 1988, Türkiye, with the Regulation 1988/13559 (which was later modified by the Turkish Regulation 2001/3275), designated its area of responsibility for search and rescue, without making it clear if the said responsibility refers to aircraft or maritime accidents. This area overlaps part of the Athinai FIR almost up to the middle of the Aegean, thus presenting a large section of Greek territory as being within the Turkish search and rescue area.

In October 2020, Türkiye, through its new Regulation 3095/2020, which is stated to apply to both maritime and aerial accidents, extended its area of search and rescue jurisdiction in the Mediterranean Sea – within the Athinai FIR – up to the 26 meridian and up to the external boundaries of the territorial waters of the Greek island of Crete, thus overlapping even larger part of Greek sovereignty (i.e. the Greek islands of Kassos and Karpathos) as well as of Greek SAR region.

This Turkish act of including Greek islands, Greek territorial waters and Greek airspace into the Turkish search and rescue area, clearly violates Greece's sovereignty, disregarding basic rules of international law.

Furthermore, the inclusion of part of the Athinai FIR in the Turkish search and rescue area is not only operationally ineffective, but also violates Greek responsibilities entrusted by the ICAO.

Such designation is also contrary to international practice and to the ΙΜΟ and the ICAO recommendations contained in the International Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue Manual (IAMSAR Manual), as well as in Annex 12 of the Chicago Convention, according to which the SAR area of responsibility for both aeronautical and maritime accidents should be coincident with the limits of the corresponding FIR.

It is clear from the above that these unilateral claims of Türkiye serve specific political expediencies which have nothing to do with the humanitarian nature of search and rescue operations. In this context, the October 2020 expansion of the Turkish search and rescue region in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, so as to coincide with the external limits of the new expansionist Turkish narrative of the “Blue Homeland” (Mavi Vatan), is indicative of Türkiye’s will to use the search and rescue issue as one more means to promote its revisionist and neo-Ottoman aspirations in relation to the maritime zones, beyond any sense of international law.

In any event, in practice it is Greece that coordinates search and rescue operations effectively via its Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) in Piraeus, providing services to all ships and aircraft at risk within the Greek area of responsibility.