By Ken Pole | May 3, 2024
Estimated reading time 1 minute, 3 seconds.
The scope of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) search-and-rescue (SAR) mission in the world’s largest SAR region is starkly reflected in raw numbers. Bordering on three oceans and with myriad islands, the country’s coastline, riven by deep fjords and mountain ranges, is an unrivalled 243,000 kilometres.
The attached landmass covers 9,984,670 square kilometres, but with Canada’s SAR responsibilities extending well out into the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and up to the High Arctic, that vastly expands the area of operations.
The RCAF’s response to calls for help from anywhere in this vast, and often meteorologically-hostile, region—1,000 calls a year, on average—is controlled by regionally-focused Joint Rescue Coordination Centres (JRCCs) in Halifax, N.S., Trenton, Ont., and Victoria, B.C. They are staffed 24 hours a day, year-round. (The “joint” in JRCC involves Canadian Coast Guard personnel mandated to respond mostly to marine emergencies.)
Continue reading this feature article in the April/May 2024 issue of Skies magazine.
While the CC295 may eventually play a SAR role I do not believe it will ever be able to replace the C130 we, and so many others, in Canada and around the world have come to depend on to support SAR activities.
Notice it was not mentioned in the photos in the article above although there was space for it.
Disappointed.