PWAC Victoria: Ian Douglas, Writing Sample

The Reading Room

SAR Squadron--Airborne Rescue

by Ian Douglas ©

The canary-yellow choppers and aircraft of Comox's 442 Squadron are the airborne lifeline in the west coast search and rescue net. Excerpts from an article published in Pacific Yachting, Dec. 1996.

What do you do when the floorboards are floating . . .?

". . . 36 feet, cream in colour, brown sail cover, two persons on board, requesting a pump . . . " Rescue 312, inbound on a routine training flight, catches the call. Behind me, SARTECs Oakes and Chisholm struggle into wet-suits as the helicopter swings southward. A Buffalo aircraft calls with a pump, ours got left behind. Labrador helicopters pack only so much when past their prime. Flight engineer Mike Graham completes his checklist, stands ready to pop the hoist hatch. "There it is . . ."

Three hours earlier, Captain Twa, 442 Search and Rescue Squadron's public affairs officer, had walked me over to catch the afternoon weather briefing. A fast-moving front pushing down Vancouver Island, scattered to broken clouds--coastal conditions--change the only constant. The duty officer runs through the list of operative aircraft, air show schedules and finishes with a report on yesterday's search. Triggered by an ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter) signal picked up near Chilliwack, an overdue light plane was discovered at the base of a rock slide. No survivors. A solemn reminder, every search has a different final episode.

Captain Twa introduces me to Aircraft Commander Gord Ireland and First Officer Scott Millar, cockpit crew on today's training flight. A/C Ireland flies the twin-engine Labrador from the starboard seat, where he has maximum visibility of the hoist. The other pilot scans the instruments, prepared for tricky flying conditions. Flight Engineer Mike Graham controls the boom hoist, relaying vital information to the cockpit crew as Search and Rescue technicians drop onto the deck of a disabled vessel. Two SARTECs fly on the Labrador, members of a tight team. "Basically our life is with the engineer, he's our other eyes."

On the way back from the briefing room, SARTEC Chisholm explains "every rescue is different, nothing is textbook." Rescue Centre log a distress call, then dispatch a Buffalo aircraft or Labrador helicopter with mission-specific equipment. Once on the scene, the SARTECs try to remain attached to the hoist line. "Once you are off the hook, there's your lifeline gone, so you're actually part of the scene, you're another casualty."

In situations where there's no communication with the vessel in trouble, the SARTECs head down to assess the scene, reporting back via mobile radio. Language difficulties often complicate already dangerous rescue operations. One SARTEC recalled a foreign fishing vessel in trouble off the east coast: ". . . they had the wheelhouse taken out, so they had no steerage, they had no communications, they were bobbing around like a cork." And when Search and Rescue dropped a modified SKAD (survival kit air droppable) with a radio, turned out none of the crew spoke English. Luckily, the "navigator spoke a bit of German, they understood a bit of German, so we had that going for us . . . and a U.S. Hercules going overhead heard us, and they had someone who could relay things to the people on board, so we had a bit of communication."

A Labrador Rescue helicopter employs three procedures for emergency marine evacuations. When conditions permit the SARTECs to be safely dropped aboard, a Stokes stretcher is then sent down by the flight engineer. In the Stokes, there's a sleeping bag and two blankets to wrap the patient. "Tied up three ways to Sunday," the casualty is lifted back aboard, while the SARTECs below control the stretcher's ascent with a guideline.

The second method, called the "Billy Pugh," is a giant landing net capable of holding two people. Dropped into the water, the chopper drags it slowly toward a swimmer. "Most of the time we free-entry into the water and explain the procedure to the swimmer," says Chisholm. "You grab it and climb into it." When I ask "What about the noise and commotion with the helicopter directly above?" he explains the chopper normally heads to a standoff position, and there they'll discuss how and what they want to do.

The third rescue method is the horse collar or sling. "I'll go down on the hook and come up to you," says SARTEC Oakes, "swing it around your shoulders, hook in, thumbs up and away we go."

The chopper is usually flying in extreme conditions so speed is essential. Search and Rescue crews are eagerly awaiting new helicopters, although the rumours are, they won't be as high-performance as the canceled EH-101s. By the time our Labrador reached the sailboat in trouble off Chrome Island, a Zodiac was lashed alongside, the situation under control. A happy ending.

Heading back to base, I remember the comment: "the thing that bugs us the most is being called the Coast Guard." Next time you're up to your ankles in bilge water, and a canary-yellow Labrador hovers overhead, remember the bumper sticker: "My ass was saved by 442 Para-rescue."

Ian Douglas
| Author Profile | More Writing Samples |

Last updated: May 19, 2004 http://www.islandnet.com/pwacvic/dougla01.html