THUNDER BAY — The Northwestern Ontario chapter of a search and rescue group has renewed its accreditation for another two years through more vigorous training.
Northwestern Ontario Air Search and Rescue Association unit director Stephen Hunsberger said the Department of National Defence funding requires team members to have their skills evaluated every two years.
"[Evaluations are] conducted by the military because we received funding from the Department of National Defense and it also involves our Ontario executive group to come up and participate in that," Hunsberger said.
"This allows us to accept taskings for actual searches from the Joint Rescue Coordination's Center based in Trenton for us and allows us to carry out these searches."
Twenty-five volunteers are on the Northwestern Ontario unit; many are ground-only personnel, while some, like Hunsberger, are used in the air.
An air rescue training session was conducted Monday in Oliver Paipoonge. Similar to the accreditation exercise last week, a locater beacon was set up in a field for a C-130 Hercules RCAF aircraft to hone in on and scout the position of the beacon's signal.
A rescue squadron from Winnipeg flew into Thunder Bay, where two search and rescue jumpers leapt from the plane to make a landing to find the acting 'injured' hiker for the exercise.
Other items were purposely dropped from the plane, including various streamers to assess the wind, communication equipment for ground personnel and other necessary tools.
Hunsberger said the group is looking for more volunteers, especially now.
"Young people in particular are, [since] we're kind of aging out, and that seems to be a real issue throughout all of Canada," he said. "We look for any volunteers within the community who would might be interested in air search and rescue on the ground or in the air."
More details can be found through the link provided about the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) and how to volunteer.
