Cyprus Police

The island of Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean, and the coast of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel lies to the east, Egypt to the south, Turkey to the north and Greece to the west. The Cyprus Police Air Operations Unit carries out a broad range of police roles as well as search and rescue and fire fighting.

Following independence from the British in 1960, the task of Search and Rescue in the surrounding area was undertaken by the Royal Air Force, with No. 84 Squadron based at Akrotiri on the island. In 1995, however, the Republic of Cyprus declared to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization that the Flight Information Region (FIR) around the island, covering an area of 176,000 square kilometres, would be the official Search and Rescue Regio...