Inland SAR in the USA
 

Does anyone know who provides inland SAR for the USA? Obviuosly the CG are coastal and out to sea but I can't seem to find who completes the job inland. Is it civvie or run by the military?

Moose

Doesn't the National Guard handle most of that sort of stuff and then the private contractors get called in when the searches get widened. That's what I gathered from a few conversations I had with some students of mine.

That is a good question-

Missing acft are searched for by CAP (civil air patrol) as well and those below-
Most countys have a Sheriff's posse (mostly volunteer) that does search and rescue via Jeep, Horse, Airplane and Helicopter- whatever assets the county has.
Some States have assets for search and rescue both ground and air.
State National Guard (Army and AF) have assets that can be drawn on for SAR both ground and air.
Occasionally Active Duty military bases will assist with search and rescue with ground and air assets.
Several civil volunteer organization assist with search and rescue.

There are more, but that hits the common ones.
Mark

Other than the CAP, there is no SAR organization. It's handled on an ad hoc basis by whomever is available and willing. The CAP searches for missing aircraft, but has no rescue capability that I know of.

If it is on NPS, BIA, FWS, BLM or USFS land, it is the helicopter onEU contract at the time.

The job actually belongs to the US Air Force. They are chartered to handle the prosecution of all inland SAR efforts starting from 50 miles inland. The Coast Guard handles everything else through there own command centers. Now who actually gets assigned the missions depends on availability and capability, whatever can be mustered from state and federal assets will get called and often you end up with a smattering of assets helping on the cases.

It al depends on where you are in the states. Some Sheriff Dept's have a SAR helicopter, and the California Highway Patrol has a bunch as well. Plenty of police departments have them- it is generally very localized, however, the National Guard gets plenty of work too, I am sure.

Example: Sonoma County Sheriff Rescue Helicopter - Bell 407

I don't know why the winch is missing from that picture- but they do vertical reference rescues with their winch.

Civil Air Patrol, at least for the search phase during daylight hours.
As far as the Air Force being tasked with SAR 50 miles inland, they may have the mission but they do not have the resources to do that; that tasks is much better carried out by local Airborne Law Enforcement Agencies with FLIR equipped helicopters.

Thinking about it, that's a gaping whole in the system.

More job openings for the National Guard and their UH-72s?