Searching from the sky: How CASARA helps with air search and rescue
CBC News | Posted: October 10, 2017 10:00 PM | Last Updated: October 10, 2017
CASARA is team of volunteers who assist in search and rescues from the air
A group of volunteers with the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) on P.E.I. are ready to help from the air in a search and rescue situation.
Though fortunately, says pilot Doug MacDonald, they aren't needed often.
"We're blessed on P.E.I. that we don't have major searches," said MacDonald, vice-president of plans and equipment with CASARA.
"It's been a long time. It's probably been 19, 20 years since a major air search has happened here. That's the good part — but we train all the time to be ready for such an incident."
MacDonald took CBC P.E.I. meteorologist Jay Scotland up in a Piper Cherokee airplane, to show him what CASARA does during a search and rescue situation.
MacDonald said the Royal Canadian Air Force likes to "double task," so they will task a Hercules or a Cormorant aircraft and then also reach out to a local CASARA zone.
"We would start fanning out people, getting them into the airport and from there we'd be tasked by a military search master," he said.
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