U.S., Canadian officials rescue aircraft crash survivor

  • Published
  • By Angela Pope
  • Air Forces Northern Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) --  The Airmen of the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center here coordinated with Canadian forces for a cross-border search and rescue mission March 7.

Staff Sgt. Jose Grimes, an AFRCC SAR duty officer, received a call from the Canadian RCC in Trenton, Canada, alerting him to a missing Canadian aircraft. The plane had departed from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was scheduled to land in Quebec, with their flight plan skirting them through Maine. 

AFRCC officials' first call was to the Federal Aviation Administration.

"We wanted to get an accurate position on the aircraft or find out if the pilot was in contact with anyone," Sergeant Grimes said. "The FAA had made contact with the pilot who relayed that the aircraft was experiencing icing conditions."

When the airplane began descending and fell below radar coverage, Sergeant Grimes and his fellow SAR controllers activated radar forensics capabilities to get a more accurate location on the aircraft.

While that was underway, AFRCC officials received a call from Halifax RCC officials in Canada, who had received an alert from an emergency beacon, also known as an emergency locator transmitter.

"The information on the ELT matched the tail number of the aircraft we had been tracking," Sergeant Grimes said. "That's when we knew the aircraft had crashed."

AFRCC officials then made calls to the Maine State Police, the Maine Warden Service and the Maine Emergency Management Agency. While U.S. officials sent assets to cover the ground aspect of the search-and-rescue effort, Halifax RCC officials sent two Canadian C-130s and a Canadian EH-101 helicopter to cover the air search.

The helicopter arrived on-scene first, surveyed the area and found the aircraft.

One of the aircrew members aboard the downed plane was safely rescued, but the other did not survive the crash.

The crew of the EH-101 airlifted the survivor to a hospital as ground assets from Maine moved in and secured the area.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families affected by this tragedy," said Lt. Col. Charles Tomko, the AFRCC commander. "We hope for a speedy recovery for the survivor."

The aircraft was located one mile south of the Canadian border in Maine.

Though the situation was unusual and atypical, nothing procedurally changed.

"This SAR event was absolutely business as usual," Sergeant Grimes said. "The coordination between us, the other RCCs, the ground assets from Maine and the air assets from Canada was spot on."

AFRCC leaders credit their long-standing international protocols and their already strong partnerships with the success.

"We already know what we're going to do and how we're going to do it during SAR events like this," Colonel Tomko said. "This event showcased the importance of our hard work coordinating with our international partners and the commitment both our nations have to life saving, regardless of nationality."