MOSCOW. Oct 3 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian state aerospace search and rescue service has performed over 3,850 aircraft search and rescue operations since its establishment in 1977, Major General Vladimir Popov, chief of the Federal Aerospace Search and Rescue Department, said in an interview with issue four of the Military-Industrial Courier weekly.
"As many as 2,800 people, including 5,498 persons belonging to the flight personnel, have been saved as a result of the operations. Aircraft have evacuated a total of 287,000 people from the areas of natural and man-made disasters," Popov said.
"As far as space objects are concerned, over 1,350 search and evacuation operations have been performed. Cosmonauts have been evacuated successfully from launch scenes 220 times. Among them are 38 foreigners who flew on Russian spacecraft," Popov said.
According to him, "about 135 to 150 aircraft with aviation rescuers and rescue equipment aboard are on duty in the aircraft search system daily."