A Romanian officer from the contingent participating in the EU Althea mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina commanded last week the multinational helicopter formation that performed the Spring Lift operation focused on the training of the reserve forces for airborne actions.

Lieutenant Commander Cristian Ciochina commanded ten helicopters of the Belgian, British, Italian and Romanian Air Forces and at the end of the mission, Friday, April 15 flew over Sarajevo in formation and landed at Butmir camp to disembark more then 100 soldiers of an Italian Regiment ensuring the reserve forces of the Althea mission.

The national representative of the Romanian armed forces in this mission said, the Romanian Detachment participated in this activity with two IAR 330 PUMA SOCAT helicopters and their crews. At the end of the activity, British Major General David Leakey, the European Force commander thanked the Romanians for the way they fulfilled their missions during this operation.

The Romanian Armed Forces participates in Althea mission with 110 soldiers from the air sub-units, intelligence units, military police and transport units as well as separate positions on the EUFOR staff.

The Romanian Air Force Detachment consisting of four IAR 330 PUMA SOCAT and their personnel is deployed in Banja Luka since January 4, 2005 for the missions: air reconnaissance, transport of equipment and personnel, search and rescue and medical evacuation.

Details on EU Althea mission with the participation of 7,000 soldiers from 33 countries can be accessed on www.euforbih.org.

MoND Press Office