Search and rescue exercise to test skills on Conception Bay

Members of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary, a coast guard vessel and a Cormorant from Gander were involved in an exercise on Conception Bay last week.

Crews were testing their skills when it comes to search and rescue on the water.

According to Neil Peet, with coast guard search and rescue, trying to rescue a vessel on the water has unique challenges and exercises like the one on Friday are necessary.

"If an airplane, God forbid, crashes in the woods today, the airplane wreckage will be there today, it will be there tomorrow, it will be there the next day," he said.

"But when a ship sinks at sea, ocean currents move, wind and tide move objects in the water, so it's important to get assets in the search area as soon as possible."

The scenario created Friday stated a small craft with three people on board was reported overdue. Crews were challenged to come up with a rescue plan, utilizing a vessel from the coast guard auxiliary, the Coast Guard Harp and the Cormorant.

According to Peet, those plans will change as the day goes on.

"The plan we started at eight o'clock this morning for a small area may not be the same search area at two o'clock in the afternoon because objects drift over time," he said.

Ever-changing conditions

The constant updating of the plan was being done locally for Friday's exercise. In real-life operations, it's taken care of by a computer at the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax.

The origins of the program go back to the days of tracking submarines in the Second World War, and the federal government has spent millions over the years upgrading the system to modern software that is able to predict how marine wreckage will drift.

"Something that sits high on the water like a life raft is affected a lot by wind … whereas take a person in the water, where there's not very much of them visibly showing, they may not be affected by the wind, but they will be affected by the tides," said Peet.

"That's where the planning becomes so important to you."

Peet said the results of Friday's exercise will be reviewed and once that's done, the agencies involved will all talk about what can be done to improve response.

"No doubt there's going to be areas where we can improve and make us better for the next time we do this," he said.

Each of the five search and rescue regions in Newfoundland and Labrador will hold an exercise like this at least once a year.