Moscow. May 29 (Interfax-AVN) - The BE-200 multipurpose amphibian plane is likely to take part in the international SAREX- 2003 exercise of Russian, U.S. and Canadian search-and-rescue services, Major General Vladimir Popov, the chief of the federal aerospace search and rescue department under the Russian Defense Ministry, told reporters in Moscow on Thursday.
"The exercise will take place at test facilities of the Taganrog Beriyev aircraft research-technical enterprise near Gelendzhik on September 9 to 13. The exercise aims to improve interaction of the three countries' rescuers in search for and evacuation of the International Space Station cosmonauts after their emergency descent. One of the variants of the exercise's plan provides for the use of the BE-200 amphibian plane in rescuing cosmonauts from water surface," Popov said.
He noted that Beriyev's management has proposed using the new plane during the exercise.
Other up-to-date equipment and means of search and rescue will be used during the exercise. In particular, new parachutes and first-aid kits that are organic of search and rescue assets will be tested, Popov said.