MOSCOW. May 30 (Interfax) - The Russian-Norwegian Barents 2019 rescue drills are over in the Arctic region, spokesman of the Northern Fleet Vadim Serga said.
"The Barents 2019 naval drills ended in the Barents and Norwegian Seas. The Northern Fleet's search-and-rescue forces returned to Severomorsk, the Northern Fleet's main base," Serga said.
The Russian-Norwegian drills have practiced joint actions in the search-and-rescue operation of people in trouble at sea, preventing the contamination of the maritime area with oil products amid Arctic's intensive industrial development.
According to the scenario of the drills, Northern Fleet ships and the search-and-rescue forces of northern Norway set out to the site of "the incident", having received a distress signal from the simulated wrecked ship, after 28 of its crewmembers fell overboard.
"An Ilyushin Il-38 aircraft of the Northern Fleet's Air Force and Air Defense Army was scrambled from the first Severomorsk airfield and flew to the area of 'the incident' to search for people in distress at sea. The Altai rescue tugboat and the Murman multifunctional rescue vessel were also sent to the area of the maritime incident," Serga said.
The Il-38 pilots have discovered 28 manikins, which have imitated sailors in distress; the crews of Russian and Norwegian rescue ships and aircraft have drilled joint rescue efforts, he said.
"Trainings of providing interaction between the Russian and Norwegian search-and-rescue units to eliminate the aftermath of the environmental disaster caused by the oil spill in the maritime area were carried out during the second stage of the drills," the spokesman of the Northern Fleet added.
Barents is the only exercise of search-and-rescue forces, which is held by Russia and Norway in the Arctic region every year. These drills are held in line with the October 4, 1995 Russian-Norwegian intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in search efforts for people who went missing and rescue efforts of people in distress in the Barents Sea.
The Russian and Norwegian sides lead these drills by turns. This year's exercise was held before the 286th anniversary of the foundation of the Northern Fleet, and the Russian side has supervised these drills.