I was very nearly the unwitting victem of this type of nonsense...
I was two hours into a night VFR search over our local lake in my Cessna, in my capacity as a local volunteer with the fire deparment, who has jurisdiction in that area. The subject of the search was a completely unlit small boat adrift, miles off shore. Two of our boats were also on the water, and I was in radio communication with them. The subject of our search could not be located, though we knew he was there, we had cell phone contact with him, and he could see and hear me going over. I had hand held night vision, but it was not useful in this situation, as the subject was completley unlit.
I called for assistance from the military rescue services. They are more than an hour away. They were dispatched. Their service consisted of a C-130 Hercules for high support, and dropping illumination flares, and a Cormorant helicopter. I maintained a listening watch on the appropriate frequency, after telling the flight service station specialist to notify the SAR crews that I was working in the area, and not to be surprized to find me there.
After an hour, I made radio contact with the C-130 ("Tiger 625"), including my position and altitude (700 feet AWL). The C-130 informed me that the Cormorant was about 15 minutes behind him. The C-130 orbited high. I orbited at the reported altitude, the general area of our search subject, and near our fireboat.
I watched for the Cormorant. My first awareness of it was my fellow firefighters in the fireboat below me reporting on the fire radio, that the Cormorant just flew over. I told them that they were probably hearing and seeing me, as I was above them, and I had been watching, and not seen the Cormorant. They insisted it had been a helicopter. Then, in the dim reflection of the hazy moonlight on the surface of the lake, I saw the exhaust heat trails of the Cormorant under me. I looked again for the helicopter, and still did not see it. At that point, our fire boat found the search subject, and picked him up uninjured. This was reported to all, including the C-130 pilot. I asked the C-130 pilot if the Cormorant had just flown under me, and he did not reply. I did hear him call the Cormorant, and say that the boater was safe, and they were to "RTB". The C-130 pilot did not speak to me again, and the Cormorant pilot had never spoken to me. I figured that "RTB" must have meant return to base, 'cause they were gone.
Rather alarmed, I realized that the helicopter probably had not been displaying any navigation or other external lights, and had flown very close to me, underneath. Who knows, how close, but a mid air collision had been a risk, which I could not have mitigated. Notifying them of my presence had not helped my safety as it should.
The next day, I phoned the rescue center. To my surprize, I got the Cormorant pilot on the phone. I asked if he had seen me... "no". Had he displayed nav lights? "no, the observers were using night vision, and the helicopter's nav lights conflicted with the night vision". I expressed my great displeasure to him, that his choice to fly at night, in uncontrolled - airspace, where I had reported my presence and location, and in contact with his partner aircraft, with no lights, and not confirming my relative position , was very simply wrecklessly unsafe, and a violation of Canada's air regulations. He did not have too much to say to that. I asked him to fly with greater care next time.
I did not make any more of an issue of it, though some people encouraged me to. I have since been told that there are now nav lights which are visible, but not night vision sensative. I hope that the Canadian Cormorants, among other search aircraft, will be equipped with these, for the sake of the rest of us!
Pilot DAR