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Left to right. Chad Daniel, Steve MacNeil, Justin Capp and Chris Rembel Photo by: Gerald Noble

Canadian Forces ground SAR response to air crashes

By Warrant Officer Tim Eagle

Preface

On a drizzly July day in 1995, I responded with a Canadian Forces rescue helicopter crew to an F-18 fighter aircraft accident on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range (CLAWR). The crew started the helicopter within minutes and a member of the 4 Wing Ground Search and Rescue (GSAR) Team joined me as a spotter. Less than an hour later, we commenced a visual air search for the missing pilot but did not find a parachute in the trees, a pilot signaling or even an Emergency Locator Transmitter. With our on-scene fuel supply running low, the crew located a small opening in the trees upwind of the crash site, so I could disembark the aircraft with the GSAR team member.

I searched the crash site dressed in a rain suit with taped cuffs, an air filter mask and a pair of goggles as protection from the carbon composite fiber, a prevalent risk in modern aircraft accidents. My goggles fogged up from sweat and the mask made radio communication difficult. While I searched, the GSAR team member used the chainsaw to enlarge and make safe the opening in the trees because more helicopters would need to land.

Within hours, a significant number of people arrived and we found some evidence that the pilot did not survive the crash. My task completed, I left the crash site, but a team of people remained behind, supported by their GSAR team. This article is about them, the Canadian Forces (CF) GSAR Teams and I am proud to tell a portion of their story.

How it started

In 1986, the National SAR Program formally identified the CF as the GSAR services provider for aeronautical and maritime incidents. The responsibility for aeronautical and maritime incidents differs from searches for missing persons, which is a police matter. CF GSAR teams may be called upon to search for missing crew members or wreckage in a small high-probability search area that cannot be effectively searched from the air or from which air evacuation is inappropriate or impossible.

Although detailed historical records about the development of military GSAR Teams are not readily available, a general background can be derived.

The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the CF maintained GSAR Teams for their own purposes before the NSP existed. They used GSAR Teams to search for missing military members or their families based at isolated locations such as NORAD radar sites. They could also locate the crew of a missing aircraft, assist during evidence gathering and clean up efforts, or ensure the safe handling of hazardous materials associated with a combat capable aircraft.

Over the decades, however, the need for CF GSAR Teams declined considerably as Canadian maritime and aviation transportation services benefited from significant proliferation and improvements to helicopters, electronic beacons, safety practices, engineering and infrastructure.

Current State

The CF now provides three GSAR Teams trained as primary Search and Rescue Units

Today, the CF contracts outside agencies that specialize in training GSAR teams rather than provide the training themselves because the fundamental methods used to locate missing persons have changed dramatically during the past decade. Since 2000, the CF reduced the number of GSAR teams from seven to four teams. The CF now provides three GSAR Teams trained as primary Search and Rescue Units (SRUs) located at 4 Wing (Cold Lake), 3 Wing (Bagotville), and 440 Sqn (Yellowknife). These CF GSAR Teams still organize themselves to be ready to leave within two hours of being alerted by the Joint Rescue Coordination Center. The fourth GSAR team, an anomaly to this situation, exists at 15 Wing, Moose Jaw, which contracts its GSAR requirements to Bombardier Aerospace Military Aviation Training, who utilize civilian volunteers from base employees, because of the low number of available military personnel on base. The flat terrain and extensive number of roads mean that a military crash will not likely occur more than half a nautical mile from a road. Therefore in Moose Jaw, the access to the site occurs quickly and can easily be maintained, as compared to the CLAWR situation described at the beginning of this article.

The 4 Wing GSAR Team requires their members attend two meetings per month for training. Each year, they conduct a weeklong exercise every spring and fall, usually conducted on the CLAWR. From January to the end of February, they provide 48 hour aircrew cold weather survival training, which they call Frosted Flyer courses, at the Burnt Lake training facility, also located within the CLAWR. They provide three courses per week and also make the training available to 4 Wing members, RCMP and other outside agencies upon request and approval. Organizing training events and maintaining equipment and infrastructure takes commitment from trainees and support from their superiors. Expectations are high.

Some people do not consider CF GSAR team members as volunteers because CF personnel receive a wage and can be lawfully ordered to work in situations that could cause serious injury or death. However, these people are not ordered to donate the enormous amount of additional personal time and effort to keep up with the administrative and training requirements of their team. They perform this function because they want to do it and for that they deserve our respect. All people involved in GSAR, whether CF or civilian, must successfully meet the challenge to provide sustained and effective operations in harsh environments and over demanding terrain.

Most people involved in the CF GSAR program wish to be employed in searches outside the base as well and sometimes get time off for this. Wing Commanders occasionally commit their GSAR resources to a search outside their base, but with great trepidation, because the military flying activity could result in an ejection at anytime and a CF requirement for GSAR.

Being part of a CF GSAR Team is not always appreciated. Although tragic events rarely occur, the substantial effort in preparing to mitigate their effects goes largely unrecognized. But CF GSAR Team members should feel proud for committing themselves to a cause that is larger than themselves - "That Others May Live!"

On a personal note, I would like to thank all the people who wear red on Fridays. It is nice knowing that Canadians support their military.

Warrant Officer Eagle is a Search and Rescue Technician with 27 years of military service, of which 20 years was spent performing operational SAR duties. He currently performs staff work in Canada Command in support of domestic employment of CF SAR resources.

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