Canadian armed forces Search and Rescue Griffon Helicopter executes a training exercise

Canadian armed forces (CAF) Search and Rescue (SAR) team from CFB Trenton 8 Wing performs a practise training in Trent Hills, Ontario. The air force participates in approximately 400 search and rescue missions in the region each year. The Trenton search and rescue region (SRR), covers an area of more than 10 million square kilometres. This is the bulk of Canada's land mass and includes Hudson's Bay, James Bay, the Canadian portions of the Great Lakes, and the Arctic Ocean.

Practising real, live scenarios in various settings is obviously a vital part of training in this elite, highly specialized group of professionals. Canadian International Medical Response Organization (CIMRO), set up and orchestrated a mock training exercise in which real people were asked to participate. In this exercise, some intoxicated persons operating a ATV, collided with several persons on mountain bikes on a remote, northern forest trail. In the scenario, two people were critically injured with several others having non life threatening injuries. This required quick thinking, great assessment skills, and quick action to stabilize patients and have them extricated to hospital via helicopter. Here you can observe the stretcher being lowered so that the SAR technician's on the ground could load a patient. They faced many challenges that day, including the environment which boasted, fair winds, fallen trees, and a creek bed with mosquitos to name a few.