MORE than 100 rescue service personnel will spend today searching for orange rubber tyres in the South China Sea.
The tyres represent an aircraft in distress and must be found by sunset.
The annual three-day search and rescue exercise began yesterday with a water bombing demonstration and rescue of simulated survivors at Shek Kong airfield.
A new emergency watch which can send out international distress signals was tested, along with a tandem jump from a height of 1,500 metres by a paramedic team from the Alaskan division of the United States Air Force which was in Hong Kong for the first time.
The exercise organised by the Civil Aviation Department involved 150 participants from Hong Kong, Guangdong, the US and Japan.
The demonstration attracted dozens of observers including representatives from Thailand, Singapore, Beijing, Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Shenzhen.
