Going the Final Distance: ProFIND Direction Finder Helps in Rescue of Young Girl
October 31, 2007
On the afternoon of October 28, 2007, Golden and District Search and Rescue (GADSAR), a member of the British Columbia Search and Rescue Association (BCSARA), received a call from the regional Rescue Coordination Centre. Military search and rescue personnel were responding to an aircraft’s activated Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT). With a search radius of approximately 20 kilometers and poor weather conditions, additional resources were needed to help locate the aircraft.
Ian Foss, president of the GADSAR, had just returned from a national search and rescue (SAR) conference where he’d met Paul Steward, program director for Cobham Tracking & Locating’s SAR products, and received a hands-on tutorial of the company’s ProFIND Direction Finder. GADSAR responded to the call and Foss went up with military personnel in a local helicopter.
Using a ProFIND Direction Finder, Foss was able to gauge the location of the aircraft and help get a visual of the white Cessna 172, which had crashed and lay overturned in an icy creek bed. The helicopter landed approximately 200 meters from the crash site and the military rescuers disembarked. Taking again to the air, Foss and the helicopter pilot helped guide them the final distance to the crash site. There, in the back of the plane, they found the sole survivor: Kate, a three-year-old girl, still strapped in her seat and hanging upside down. Suffering only minor head injuries, she was air lifted to hospital and later reunited with her parents. Kate’s grandfather who had been piloting the plane and another passenger did not survive the crash.
Foss speculates that had it not been for Cobham Tracking & Locating’s ProFIND Direction Finder, they would not have been able to locate the aircraft in time to save the young girl.
“We had limited daylight left when we started the search,” Foss explains. “Using the beacon finder’s signal strength indicator, we were able to home in on the downed aircraft in fairly short order and rescue Kate.”
Steward commends the efforts of Foss and the others involved.
"I am pleased with how our direction finder functioned," says Steward. "But that does not compare to how I feel about Ian's actions, and the actions of the aircrew and SAR technicians -- there's no greater calling than risking your own life to save others."
Read Globe and Mail coverage of the rescue.
Learn more about the ProFIND Direction Finder.
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