The great territorial dimensions of Brazil, as well as the enormous coast and adjacent international waters, had taken the one that our Country had the responsibility for safeguards of the ships and the aircraft that cross the Atlantic Ocean diuturnamente, what it caused the efetivação of international agreements, so that the Brazilian Air Force provided to the service of search and rescue in this strategical one and abandoned area.

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In years 50, such task already was carried through, precariously, for the four-motor planes Boeing SB-17G Flying Cortaleza, hosted in Recife, and for Consolidated PBY Catalina, that were dislocated from Belém.

Thus, the necessity of activation of a specialized aerial unit, for the accomplishment of such taken over on a contract basis, took the BAF to acquire the model the amphibian Grumman SA-16A Albatross.

Marcius Cesar Costa

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