Rescue the Rescuers continuing in Canada
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Rescue the Rescuers continuing in Canada
Global News | Helicopter down after plucking hunters from sea ice; rescuers parachute to site
ARVIAT, Nunavut - Family members are anxiously waiting to hear about the fate of two stranded seal hunters who were plucked from the ice off the west shore of Hudson Bay only to have their rescue chopper crash soon afterward.
Charlotte St. John said she has been told her brother and nephew are alive but she doesn't know if they're hurt or if their rescuers in the helicopter also survived.
"Apparently it crashed and we don't know why or how," St. John said Wednesday afternoon, while trying to get all of her relatives together.
"We need everyone of them right now and everybody praying."
Rescue officials from Trenton, Ont. said more search and rescue technicians have parachuted onto sea ice from a Hercules, which was already on the scene searching for the hunters.
Two other military aircraft - a Griffon helicopter from Cold Lake, Alta., and a Cormorant helicopter from Quebec City - were on their way to Arviat where the original rescue helicopter went down. The Griffon was expected to be in the area by late afternoon.
Marine controller Chris Armour said the chartered, privately owned helicopter was half on the ice, half in the water. It crashed about 100 metres from where it picked up the hunters.
He said the men were being treated. "Nothing's been confirmed at all ... We're just trying to find out and get people out of the situation."
St. John said her brother Joe Karetak and his son Joe Jr., known by his traditional name Nepyok, went hunting Tuesday.
"Everybody knows all the seal hunters have to be back before dark, just for safety sake."
She said when the pair didn't return, her uncle went out looking and found their abandoned snowmobile and sled. A small boat they had taken to retrieve their kill was gone.
She said search teams initially tried to get the men by boat. "There's a lot of slush and the boats - they'd been trying all day to get to them. Their engines freeze up."
Search and rescue in the North is fraught with danger.
In 2011, a military search-and-rescue technician was killed while he and two of his colleagues were trying to rescue two men stranded in a boat in choppy waters in the Hecla Strait, 25 kilometres east of Igloolik, Nunavut.
The airmen had parachuted from a C-130 Hercules airplane to save the men and Sgt. Janick Gilbert died in icy waters before a rescue helicopter arrived to pick them up.
A preliminary flight-safety report into that incident said the tether designed to hold Gilbert's one-man raft to his life-preserver had separated at the threads and the raft was missing when he was found.
Read it on Global News: Global News | Helicopter down after plucking hunters from sea ice; rescuers parachute to site
ARVIAT, Nunavut - Family members are anxiously waiting to hear about the fate of two stranded seal hunters who were plucked from the ice off the west shore of Hudson Bay only to have their rescue chopper crash soon afterward.
Charlotte St. John said she has been told her brother and nephew are alive but she doesn't know if they're hurt or if their rescuers in the helicopter also survived.
"Apparently it crashed and we don't know why or how," St. John said Wednesday afternoon, while trying to get all of her relatives together.
"We need everyone of them right now and everybody praying."
Rescue officials from Trenton, Ont. said more search and rescue technicians have parachuted onto sea ice from a Hercules, which was already on the scene searching for the hunters.
Two other military aircraft - a Griffon helicopter from Cold Lake, Alta., and a Cormorant helicopter from Quebec City - were on their way to Arviat where the original rescue helicopter went down. The Griffon was expected to be in the area by late afternoon.
Marine controller Chris Armour said the chartered, privately owned helicopter was half on the ice, half in the water. It crashed about 100 metres from where it picked up the hunters.
He said the men were being treated. "Nothing's been confirmed at all ... We're just trying to find out and get people out of the situation."
St. John said her brother Joe Karetak and his son Joe Jr., known by his traditional name Nepyok, went hunting Tuesday.
"Everybody knows all the seal hunters have to be back before dark, just for safety sake."
She said when the pair didn't return, her uncle went out looking and found their abandoned snowmobile and sled. A small boat they had taken to retrieve their kill was gone.
She said search teams initially tried to get the men by boat. "There's a lot of slush and the boats - they'd been trying all day to get to them. Their engines freeze up."
Search and rescue in the North is fraught with danger.
In 2011, a military search-and-rescue technician was killed while he and two of his colleagues were trying to rescue two men stranded in a boat in choppy waters in the Hecla Strait, 25 kilometres east of Igloolik, Nunavut.
The airmen had parachuted from a C-130 Hercules airplane to save the men and Sgt. Janick Gilbert died in icy waters before a rescue helicopter arrived to pick them up.
A preliminary flight-safety report into that incident said the tether designed to hold Gilbert's one-man raft to his life-preserver had separated at the threads and the raft was missing when he was found.
Read it on Global News: Global News | Helicopter down after plucking hunters from sea ice; rescuers parachute to site
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We had the please of welcoming 424 Squadron from Trenton, Ontario to Kiel last year, celebrating our fly-out.
Highly professional aircrew and technicians, hard working and committed to saving lifes in one of the harshest environments.
The rescue jumpers in particular were something special.
Hope that everyone´s ok!
Thomas
Highly professional aircrew and technicians, hard working and committed to saving lifes in one of the harshest environments.
The rescue jumpers in particular were something special.
Hope that everyone´s ok!
Thomas
