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Inuvik volunteer search and rescue unit ready to fly

Thirteen pairs of eyes in the sky have been certified to serve as search and rescue operatives.
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Inuvik’s CASARA unit is ready to fly in the event of a search and rescue emergency. Back row, from left, Capt. Mackenzie Cook and SarTech Kevin Cochrane. Third row, from left, Pascal Oke, Kelsey Sales and Faye d’Eon-Eggertson. Second row, from left, Jimmy Arey, Roxanne Springer, Luisa Juliana Ospina Suarez, Karli Zschögner, Cindy Baryluk and Kirsten Fleuty. Front row, from left, Celtie Ferguson and Pauley Tedoff. Missing is Tracy Davidson. Photo courtesy of Monica Krest

Thirteen pairs of eyes in the sky have been certified to serve as search and rescue operatives.

Inuvik’s Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) team was evaluated on Oct. 15, with some completing three hours of classroom training and others completing evaluation flights to train as spotters.

“Every two years we have to get certified by the military,” said zone commander Kirsten Fleuty. “A CASARA liaison officer comes up and certifies that we as a group can go up in the air. It’s like a training exercise, but they’re standing over your shoulder asking you questions. So they observe us, our navigator goes up in the air with the spotter and looks for an electronic homing device.

“At the same time, SAR (Search and Rescue) Tech Kevin Cochrane took three spotters in training out to fly in the 440 squadron airplane over the Delta.”

In total, the Inuvik CASARA unit consists of 13 active volunteers, four navigators and six spotters in training — including Fleuty.

CASARA comprises on-call volunteers ready to take to the air in a search and rescue operation. An essential part of locating someone, the spotters are trained to systematically scan the ground for signs of human activity.

Search planes are typically chartered from North-Wright Airways.

Volunteering with CASARA is a simple affair — recruits are required to attend the aforementioned three hours of classroom time and two training flights before completing a certification flight.

After that, the group meets to practice approximately once a month, depending on volunteer availability. Volunteers can remain spotters or continue training to get certification as navigators if they want to take on more responsibility.

“As a navigator, I’m also a spotter,” said Fleuty. “Navigating is when you’re the one that tells the pilot where to fly, the patterns to fly in, the area they’re going to, what path they’ll fly.”

This batch of volunteers was recruited at the Town of Inuvik’s annual Community Registration Night, held Sept. 14 in the Midnight Sun Complex. Fleuty said the next training intake would be around February or March, so anyone interested should reach out to her at casarainuvik@gmail.com if interested. Each training flight session is roughly a four-hour commitment.

Volunteering is open to anyone, so long as they have functional vision. Fleuty said that from March to June this year, the entire spotter and navigation crew consisted of women.

On average, the unit is called to action no more than four times a year. Fleuty noted being called to action means being on standby, not necessarily scrambling to a plane. CASARA can be dispatched by the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in the event of a downed plane, or the RCMP if someone is missing.

She also noted while practising spotting, volunteers get to take in sights of nature not usually seen from the ground.

“We see some pretty interesting things,” she said. “I was monitoring and the crew saw a pack of wolves last fall. We see caribou and a lot of moose. In the summertime you’ll see a lot of animals.”



About the Author: Eric Bowling

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