ICE rescue > het echte werk ;-)

[Rescue]

Naar aanleiding van berichtje van UITKIJK, het volgene twee Rescue PJ-es van de canadase defensie, hebben een bijzondere ijsredding gedaan..

Missing Canadian teenager survives three days on ice floe

Search team finds teenager Jupi Nakoolak 'in decent shape' after drifting in -15C temperatures with polar bears

A Canadian teenager has been rescued unharmed, apart from minor frostbite, after drifting for almost three days on an ice floe together with two polar bear cubs and the carcass of their mother which he shot in self defence.

The 17-year-old, who was named locally as Jupi Nakoolak, was suffering from hypothermia after the temperature fell below -15C, but was otherwise well, conscious and speaking to his rescuers, who crawled across ice floes to reach him.

Nakoolak told them he shot the adult bear when it came too close, and then got as far away as possible on the ice from the cubs, which remained with the body.

He had been stranded since Saturday evening, when he and his 67-year-old uncle got into trouble during a hunting expedition and the ice floe on which he was standing broke away. Nakoolak's only food was a small package of chocolate bars, dropped late on Sunday by a small aircraft chartered by the Canadian government, but the pilot and the crew of another plane lost sight of the teenager in the gathering darkness. The search continued through the night, with flares being dropped to light up the frozen landscape. But Nakoolak was not located until daylight yesterday.

The drama began when Nakoolak went hunting with his uncle Jimmy on Southampton Island in the northern part of Hudson Bay. Their snowmobile broke down, and they set out walking towards a small settlement, Coral Harbour, about 11 miles from where they were stranded.

The pair were reported missing when they failed to return by Saturday night. The older man was picked up on Sunday morning, still searching for his nephew. A search by boat, snowmobile, 4X4s and air was launched. It was only on Monday morning that a military search and rescue plane spotted him again on the ice, which had drifted about 20 miles from where the snowmobile had broken down.

Two crew members parachuted on to a larger floe, and then crawled on their bellies to reach him. All three were then picked up by boat, and the youth was flown to join his uncle in hospital in Churchill.

Jean-Pierre Sharp, an official with the Canadian forces joint rescue co-ordination centre in Ontario, said the teenager was "in decent shape".

"Even after spending hours alone, huddling in temperatures that dipped below -15C, the teen appeared to be in decent shape. He was conscious, slightly hypothermic and appeared to have some frostbite."

Rob Hedley, the senior administrative officer at Coral Harbour, where dozens of residents had joined in the search, spoke to him when he was first taken to the local health centre.

Hedley told Canadian television: "It's quite incredible that he's in such good shape …. As much as the polar bear is a bit of a dramatic aspect of it, he had his weapon with him, thank goodness. But also it's basically surviving three days out on the land with little food or water. I was expecting this not to end as happily as it did."

Bron : Guardian 2009-11-10

Nunavut ice-floe rescue best yet: searcher

A military search-and-rescue technician who helped save a 17-year-old boy stranded on an ice floe in the frigid waters of Hudson Bay, near the Nunavut community of Coral Harbour, says he'll never forget the dramatic experience.

"It [the rescue] was very rewarding and very challenging — the best one yet," Sgt. Randy McOrmond, based at CFB Winnipeg told CBC News in an interview Tuesday.

"It went very smoothly … to my relief. There were lots of challenges we had to overcome, of course."

The teen and his uncle, Inuit elder Jimmy Nakoolak, had been out on a weekend hunting trip when their snowmobile broke down on the way back to Coral Harbour, a community located on the southern coast of Southampton Island.

After Nakoolak departed on foot to get help, the ice cracked and the boy was stranded on an ice pan about 50 metres by 50 metres in size for about three days. Nakoolak was found on Sunday.


Jumped over ice chunks

McOrmond, along with another military search-and-rescue technician reached the stranded youth on Monday morning after searchers aboard a Hercules aircraft spotted him dozens of kilometres away from the community.

They parachuted onto a nearby ice chunk, and then spent about 10 minutes negotiating the freezing Arctic waters to reach the boy.

"We jumped over a few [floes]. We actually did end up falling into the water on a couple of occasions," McOrmond said, adding that they were wearing dry suits.

When they reached the boy, he was frostbitten and hypothermic, but coherent, McOrmond said. "He couldn't move. He had been on the ice wet for 45 hours. He was in rough shape."

Local rescuers stuck in boat
Four local rescuers then came on the scene, manoeuvred their boat through the ice and safely transported the boy and two military rescuers to shore.

But sometime later Monday, the boat got stuck while the men were trying to return to Coral Harbour. They were stuck about five kilometres offshore, 40 kilometres from the community.

"That vessel attempted to make its way back to the community in Coral Harbour. Unfortunately it has become stuck in the ice and it's unable to move," Capt. Mike Young of the Canadian Rescue Coordination Centre in Trenton, Ont., told CBC News.

On Tuesday, six additional men from Coral Harbour drove along the coastline on all-terrain vehicles, then walked for five to six kilometres on the ice pans to reach the lodged boat.

After a short rest and some discussions, all 10 men pulled the boat off the ice and hauled it back to shore — not an easy task at this time of year, since the ice pans are constantly shifting.

Never in immediate danger
"They were able to drag that vessel and kind of run it through the open water that was between them and managed that back to land, basically walking and dragging the vessel mostly," Young said.

The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre — which groups the military, coast guard and other federal agencies for search and rescue missions — only learned Tuesday morning that the men did not make it back to Coral Harbour on Monday night as anticipated.

But Young said the men were never in any immediate danger, as they were wearing warm clothes and carrying emergency supplies such as heating sources.

Meanwhile, the rescued pair were in stable condition and being treated for hypothermia in Churchill, Man., on Tuesday.

Nunavut RCMP spokesman Jimmy Akavak told CBC News that both the boy and his uncle were flown to a hospital in Churchill for treatment and observation.

"Both are said to be stable, but the young man was very, very much hypothermic so they're taking precautions on how they treat him and how they handle him," Akavak said. "So hopefully he'll do better."

Akavak said while the teen was stranded on the ice floe, he was forced to shoot a polar bear that came within 150 metres of him.

Both police and conservation officers in Coral Harbour have confirmed that the polar bear was killed in self-defence.

Military personnel praised
More than 40 search and rescue volunteers from Coral Harbour, a hamlet of about 800 people, worked with RCMP and military crews in the three-day search.

In an interview Tuesday with CBC News, Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Walt Natynczyk praised the military personnel who took part in the rescue effort.

"It's what happens each and every day. Unless it's on the front page of The Globe and Mail, people don't recognize the courage, the professionalism, that our men and women do every day," Natynczyk said.

"I'm really proud of our men and women. But I'm also proud of their families, because those families at home had no idea that their loved ones were going to launch off to the Arctic, or what they would do, or the risks they would face."

Two Hercules aircraft, a Twin Otter plane and a helicopter were brought in to assist.

Nunavut RCMP reminded Nunavummiut to be careful with difficult winter conditions at this time of year, and to carry survival supplies and radio equipment when they go out on to the land.

Bron : CBC Cananda

[Rescue]

Filmpje van de eenheid die de twee PJ-ers heeft ingezet..

Een Filmpje van de SAR technicans uit Candadian defense

[uitkijk]

Hehe, bedankt voor je naspeuringen Peter, had ook eigenlijk niet anders verwacht.  

Kees  

[Rescue]

Ik moet mezelf corrigeren...  

dit team noemt zich zelf SARTECH (Search and Rescue Technician) en geen PJ-ers..

De US-PJ's worden primair ingezet voor c-SAR dus SAR in combat situations..  De SARTECH's worden primair ingezet in civiel SAR..  Sinds kort worden ook burgerpersoneel geworven voor SARTECH taken..  De fysieke en mentale conditie eisen zijn nog al pittig.  

Maar hopen op weer een flinke ijsperiode in nederland.. zodat we de ijsrecue technieken weer eens kunnen oefenen. Kunnen we onze nieuwe duiksets ook eens onder het ijs uitproberen..