Visibility conditions are deteriorating as rescue teams search for John Fer and pilot Brian Slingerland
Day four of the search for two missing men continues after their plane mysteriously disappeared from radar signals about 60 kilometers north of Sault Ste. Marie last Thursday.
In cases such as aircraft and other aircraft, the Royal Canadian Air Force is primarily in the lead, as it has a mandate for air navigation and rescue.
Major Trevor Reed, a senior public relations officer at the Trenton Joint Rescue Coordination Center, said the seven planes on the mission conducted visual searches both day and night to look for evidence of planes on the ground.
For search and rescue operations involving a missing aircraft, the team first goes through a “phase of uncertainty”, which may be declared when radio contact is lost to the aircraft and cannot be restored or when the aircraft fails to reach its destination. happened in this case. The Flight Information Center said the plane was late for its Marathon destination and did not arrive Thursday night.
“Unfortunately, we were unable to communicate with the two people on board,” Reed said.
From there, the team is trying to gain more certainty about the situation and look for evidence of where the plane may be or whether the distress signal has been activated. If they are not found, the team goes to the “stress base”, where there is enough security to believe that the plane is really in trouble and the demand is activated with the help of air resources.
Reed says the search is not getting easier, as the forecast shows snow showers this afternoon and throughout the week.
“The weather is starting to get less favorable,” Reed said. “But we have some helicopters and planes involved in the search. Again, they are concentrating around the area where the plane was last seen on the radar. We also have planes that follow the flight plan between Delhi and Marathon. ”
Conditions are already difficult to deal with without snowfall, as the terrain is very hilly with lots of snow and trees in some areas.
“The area is difficult to quantify, but searching like this often leads to many passes through many places at different heights. When it comes to hills, it creates a bit of a 3-D search effect. ”
Although the chances of finding both men alive may seem appalling, Reed says the search is still a rescue mission, not a recovery, noting that every moment is precious.
“We’re doing our mission minute by minute, hour by hour,” Reed said. “We do not want to look ahead. Our focus is on the here and now to find them. ”
The Trenton Joint Rescue Coordination Center is equipped with members of both the Air Force for air navigation cases and members of the Canadian Marine Coast Guard. Reed said electronic searches were also being conducted to try to retrieve an emergency locator he had on board the missing plane. The search aircraft is equipped with devices that can capture and refine emergency location signals.
These signals have yet to be identified.
Reed said there may be several reasons why search and rescue teams were unable to pick up a signal from either the plane or any of the missing persons’ cellular devices, but he did not want to speculate as to why this was happening at the moment. time.
Reed says the team continues to focus resources in the search area, as well as other trails on the alleged men’s flight to the Marathon, adding that there is no time frame for rescue.
“It would be dishonest to assume that there is time for this tour or something like that,” he explained. “Currently, we are constantly analyzing the situation and allocating resources if necessary.”
– with files from Denise Paglinawan
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