On 25 May 2023 in Brussels, ICAO Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar and EUROCONTROL Director General Raúl Medina took a step forward in the cooperation between the two organisations on the safety-vital topic of aircraft in distress. This signature of letters builds on the existing Agreement for Cooperation signed on 27 March 1996 to support the ultimate goal of improving aircraft tracking and identifying distress situations during a flight, in order to initiate a timely rescue operation, by tasking EUROCONTROL with the development and hosting of LADR - a Location of an Aircraft in Distress Repository, and an Operational Control Directory (OPS CTRL). (....)