Azores Situation Report Wednesday 19th April 2023
Air Force rescues missing young woman in a kayak race in the Azores.
A 16-year-old girl was rescued by the Portuguese Air Force (FAP), in Angra do Heroísmo, in the Azores, after being reported missing, “during a kayak test”, the organization revealed today in a press release.
According to the Air Force, the rescue, which took place on Saturday at 6:27 pm local time, on Terceira Island, “was ensured by the alert crew from the Azores via an EH-101 Merlin helicopter that arrived at the location of the searches at 18:10, after the alert of the disappearance of the young woman was given”.
“After being located and recovered, the young woman, who showed slight signs of hypothermia, was taken to Air Base No. 4, in Lajes, where an ambulance was waiting that transported her to a hospital unit”, said the FAP.
The operation “was activated by the Lajes Air Search and Rescue Coordination Centre and coordinated by the Ponta Delgada Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Centre”.
The Portuguese Air Force has assigned “a sea search and rescue area of 5,816,562 km², equivalent to more than half of the European territory, representing the second largest area of responsibility in the North Atlantic”.´
Pretrial detention for robbery suspect in Ponta Delgada
A man was held in preventive detention for being suspected of committing several crimes of aggravated theft, which occurred in the city of Ponta Delgada.
According to a statement from the Regional Command of the Azores of the PSP, last Tuesday, a 23-year-old man was arrested, with “a criminal record, strongly indicted for the practice of several crimes of aggravated theft, which occurred in Ponta Delgada, as a result of the result of analysis and treatment of the various signs that have been collected within the scope of various investigations taking place at the Ponta Delgada EIC”.
PSP investigators developed a set of steps that allowed the “collection of evidence that unequivocally points this suspect as the author of three qualified thefts that he carried out inside commercial establishments”.
The PSP also says that the “suspect acted alone, during the night, selecting establishments located in places with no movement of people. He entered establishments by breaking into doors and windows and acted exclusively with the aim of stealing monetary amounts”.
In view of the danger that the defendant represented of continuing to commit crimes, the PSP decided “for his arrest using the procedural modality of out of flagrante delicto issued by the Police Authority”.
The Ponta Delgada Criminal Investigation Squadron also adds that this defendant is suspected of committing other crimes of the same nature, so “investigations will continue in order to determine his, eventual, criminal responsibility”.
Azorean government defends “fair investment” of 20ME in the new school in Rabo de Peixe
The President of the Government of the Azores praised the quality of the new Integrated Basic School of Rabo de Peixe, a “fair investment” of 20 million euros, and warned that it was necessary to monitor the “absenteeism” of school assistants in the region.
“There are 48 rooms in an area of more than five thousand square meters of intervention and which had a budget that exceeded 20 million euros. It is a good structure and will help teachers with a teaching vocation and students with a learning vocation to find a qualified environment”, stated José Manuel Bolieiro.