In Skopje during 25 and 26 April 2023, the Civil Aviation Agency of Republic of North Macedonia organized a meeting of the Working Groups and Expert Team of the Regional Aeronautical Search and Rescue Advisory Committee –RASARAC.

The meetings were attended by the RASARAC representatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and North Macedonia as a host State, as well as a representative from EUROCONTROL for cooperation with RASARAC. On the second day the meeting was also attended by the representative from JAA Training organization and also from the national units from the Ministry of Transport and Communication, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Internal Affairs, M-NAV – Air Navigation Service Provider, Crisis Management Center, TAV Macedonia, Directorate for Protection and Rescue, Macedonian Red Cross, Aeronautical Federation of Macedonia responsible for aeronautical search and rescue activities.

Many topics were discussed regarding the enhancing of mutual cooperation and support of the Member States, improvement of operational cross-border cooperation and also cooperation with organizations such as ICAO, EUROCONTROL, COSPAS-SARSAT, JAA TO, building and development of capacities for search and rescue of aircraft in distress, implementation of ICAO standards, regulations and procedures in the area of search and rescue.

Participants expressed their content with organization of the meeting organized by the Civil Aviation Agency of North Macedonia. The meeting was attended by more than 40 participants from N. Macedonia and abroad. Macedonian CAA took over the presidency of RASARAC in February 2023 and is planning to organize at least one more meeting of the Expert Team and Management Board of RASARAC by the end of this year.

RASARAC was established in 2016 and until today 10 countries participate in its work (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic and Hungary).

The establishment of this Committee was supported by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and EUROCONTROL.