The Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center or JRCC Larnaca (Greek: ) is an independent agency of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Cyprus and its primary mission is to organize the national Search and Rescue (SAR) system, to co-ordinate, to control and direct SAR operations in the region that the Cyprus JRCC is responsible for (which coincides with the Nicosia FIR), so that people, whose lives are at risk as a result of aviation or maritime accidents, can be located and rescued in the least amount of time. This is achieved by coordinating all the different agencies involved such as, Cyprus Police (Including Port and Marine Police, Cyprus Fire Service and Cyprus Police Aviation Unit), the Cypriot National Guard, the Cyprus Civil Defence and other secondary Units, acting as a communications agent between them, so that they do not conduct overlapping searches and waste time by searching areas already searched by other units and in general help all the different units operate as a single larger in numbers unit, eliminating any other problems that might occur. It reports directly to the operational control of the Minister of Defence and it is staffed by qualified personnel of the Cyprus National Guard, mainly from the branches of the Navy and the Air Force. All logistic and technical support is the responsibility of the Ministry of Communications & Works. Τhe Joint Rescue Coordination Center is located to in the city of Larnaca in a new owned building near of Larnaca Airport. History The Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center was established by Law 5(III)/94 and started operating on a trial 24-hour basis on the 7th of August 1995 as an independent unit of the Cyprus Air Force Command. On March 1, 2002 by decision of the Ministry Cabinet the JRCC undertook formally the responsibility for organizing, coordinating and monitoring, search and rescue operations, in the region that the Republic of Cyprus is responsible for. The JRCC functioned as such until the 26th of July, 2010. Following the relevant opinion of Attorney General for the provisions of Law 5 (III) / 1994 (on Research - Rescue Ratification Act) JRCC reports directly to the Minister of Defence and operates as an independent agency of the Ministry of Defence. Cyprus search and rescue region (SRR) The Cyprus search and rescue region (SRR) coincides with the Nicosia FIR as described in the current Air Navigation Plan