600 Join SAREX 2017 As Preparation For LIMA '17

LANGKAWI (Kedah, Malaysia), March 2 (Bernama) -- An aircraft crash during a demonstration at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA) in 2015 has been turned into a simulation for a search and rescue exercise (SAREX) held Thursday. The land rescue exercise held at the Langkawi International Airport (LIA) is a follow-up to the sea exercise held Wednesday involving 600 participants and 30 government and private agencies. LIA manager, Jefry Ramli, said the scenario involved the simulation when an aircraft experienced problems during a display and crashed in a static exhibition area at the airport. "Through SAREX, we will evaluate the level of preparedness of each agency in facing any emergency situation during LIMA," he said. LIMA '17 will be held from March 21 to 25 and is expected to attract about 140,000 normal visitors and 40,000 trade visitors. Meanwhile, the sea exercise conducted yesterday near Pulau Singa Besar and Pulau Dayang Bunting involving two helicopters, one each from the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) and the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA). RMAF headquarters chief of staff Brig Gen Zahani Zainal Abidin said RMAF deployed the KD Kinabalu for the simulation. "The exercise is to test the existing sea rescue standard operating procedure (SOP) and to improve its effectiveness," he said. -- BERNAMA