A commercial airliner crashes into the sea with 40 passengers on board. Two F-18 fighter jets crash. It's 11:15 a.m. on Thursday, June 19, and the Canary Islands Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Center (ARCC) at Gando Air Base is alerted. The situation is critical, but fortunately, it's only an exercise.
This is CANASAR 2025, the most important search and rescue exercise of the year in Spanish airspace, organized by the Spanish Air Force through its historic Search and Rescue Service (SAR). And for the first time, the south of Gran Canaria, specifically the municipality of Mogán, will host the main deployment of air, sea, and land resources in a medium-to-high-difficulty scenario.
A double accident and a mission: saving lives
The script isn't random. An ATR72 belonging to a regional airline loses contact and disappears with 40 people on board. Almost simultaneously, two F-18 fighter jets are forced to be abandoned mid-flight by their pilots. The ARCC activates the danger phase, the highest level before a confirmed accident. A race against time then begins.
Eleven aircraft (three planes, eight helicopters, and drones), medical units, rescuers, divers, forensic specialists, and dozens of emergency professionals are mobilized. The Advanced Command Post is activated, and an Air Coordination Team (ACO) is deployed to the area to organize the airspace and coordinate operations on land and at sea.
From helicopter to hospital: extreme training
Beyond the technical deployment, CANASAR 2025 is a comprehensive test of resilience, coordination, and joint response. It simulates the rescue of survivors, medical triage in a hostile area, evacuation to hospitals like Dr. Negrín, the search for black boxes, and the identification of personal remains. All in real time.
"The goal is to save lives. Every minute counts. Every decision can be the difference between an effective evacuation or a worsening tragedy," say sources from the SAR, a service with more than six decades of history in the Canary Islands.
An institutional fabric that works
The scale of the exercise is only possible thanks to the involvement of more than 20 institutions and organizations. From the Government Delegation to the Gran Canaria Island Council, Mogán City Council, the Red Cross, the Civil Guard, the National Police, CECOES 112, GES, SUC, SASEMAR, CIAIAC, CITAAM, ULPGC, PLOCAN, and educational centers such as the Tony Gallardo Primary School and the Mogán PFAE.
Civil-military collaboration works, and the commander-in-chief of the Canary Islands Air Command, Francisco Javier Vidal, emphasizes this: "We are available every day of the year. CANASAR is demanding, but it reflects that the Canary Islands are a territory prepared for the worst, even in the air."
Mogán as an international reference for air rescue
The exercise has not gone unnoticed beyond our borders. Representatives of the SARs of Portugal, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Senegal, Morocco, Mauritania, and Italy followed the drill as international observers of the 5+5 initiative, which promotes military cooperation in the Western Mediterranean.
For Onalia Bueno, mayor of Mogán, "it is a source of pride to host this deployment, which shows that we are more than a tourist destination: we are a point of reference for complex operations and a space for cooperation."
The Government's sub-delegate in the Canary Islands, María Teresa Mayans, also praised the Air Force's commitment to "testing real crisis response capabilities, striving for excellence and generating public trust."
-More than 3.500 lives saved from the Canary Islands
Since 1955, the Spanish SAR has rescued more than 3.500 people and carried out some 6.500 missions, many of them originating or destined for the Islands. It does so quietly, discreetly, from the shadows. But on days like this, the effort comes to light.
CANASAR 2025 is not just an exercise. It's a renewed promise. From those who train for the unthinkable. From an Army that offers its capabilities to all of society. And from an archipelago—Gran Canaria, Mogán, Maspalomas—that once again demonstrates that its vocation is not just tourism: it is strategic, supportive, and fully committed to human security.
