Imagine you're piloting a small, single-engine aircraft. Take-off goes smoothly, but as you approach the midway point of your destination, the weather turns violent, forcing you to make an emergency landing in a remote location.
You land the plane in a field surrounded by nothing but forest. While you are fortunate to escape without serious injuries, there is damage to your plane. Your thoughts now turn to how you will be rescued, particularly as nighttime descends upon you.
CAP was composed mainly of volunteers who went on to fly more than 500,000 hours, sink two enemy submarines and save hundreds of crash victims during the war. In 1946, President Truman signed Public Law 476, which incorporated CAP as a benevolent, nonprofit organization. On May 26, 1948, CAP was permanently established as an auxiliary of the new United States Air Force.
CAP's aerospace and cadet programs are designed to educate youth across the country in aerospace-related information. Every year, nearly 10% of each graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy is composed of men and women who took part in CAP's Cadet Program during their early-to-late teens.
"We ended up supporting aviation accidents during the war," says John Desmarais, Emergency Services Program Plan Officer for CAP. "After the war ended, our volunteer members used aircraft for search and rescue and disaster relief missions."
According to Desmarais, approximately 50,000 CAP members are trained in the ES program. Members include pilots and other air crew who fly aviation search and rescue missions; ground personnel, which can include professional EMTs, paramedics, nurses, doctors and first responders; disaster relief specialists and others.
CAP's ES program is mainly divided into two types of missions: search and rescue (SAR) and disaster relief (DR).
Here is how a typical CAP SAR mission would take place in response to the opening scenario of the stranded pilot:
The g forces that were set off from the plane's emergency landing activate an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) which operates through the plane's radio. By law, all light aircraft are required to carry an ELT, and most of these devices are factory-installed.
Weather satellites in space owned by the United States and Russia and operated in the U.S. by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have a built-in device to immediately detect the ELT signal and locate it to within 12 nautical miles. Once the signal is detected, NOAA staff at the U.S. Mission Control Center determine whether it involves an inland search or a coastal rescue and they contact the appropriate agency to respond (U.S. Air Force, for an inland rescue; U.S. Coast Guard, for a water-based rescue involving the ocean or navigable waterways around the ocean.)
Since the opening scenario involves an inland rescue, the Air Force would be contacted. The Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia takes the call. AFRCC staff then locate the most appropriate and closest CAP SAR units to respond to the scene of the emergency landing.
Finding a CAP unit to respond is not a problem, as each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico operate multiple units that are trained to respond to these missions and coordinate with other local first responding and law enforcement agencies. (There are currently more than 1,900 CAP units spread throughout each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.)
From information supplied by CAP headquarters, the AFRCC then contacts the mission coordinator in the CAP unit that is closest to the site of the accident. Typically, each state has between 6—10 mission coordinators who engage a SAR mission once they are contacted by the AFRCC.
"They either handle the mission themselves, or they hand it off to someone in the local area," says Desmarais. "From there, the mission coordinator basically selects their staff for the mission, and while they are running that mission, they serve as the on-scene commander for the AFRCC. The AFRCC has operational authority for the mission, but CAP handles the managerial decisions.
"Mission coordinators normally coordinate with local authorities and EMS personnel to get a mission accomplished," says Desmarais.
Eventually, through coordination between CAP, the AFRCC, the local mission coordinator and the various local authorities on scene, the pilot would be rescued and taken to the most appropriate facility for treatment of any crash-related injuries.
Desmarais says most SAR missions that respond to an ELT signal resolve fairly quickly (within 6 hours), since the AFRCC can get a good read on the location of the missing aircraft. Newer ELTs using 406 MHz frequencies are currently being studied for use in light aircraft, says Desmarais. These devices, which are to be installed in all light aircraft by 2008, will be able to pinpoint a location to within 100 meters, significantly closer than the current distance of 12 miles.
Unfortunately, CAP often finds itself responding to false ELT signals. Desmarais says that aircraft owners are required to check their radios after completing each flight and that during this routine check, they would notice if the ELT signal is going off. (To conserve the plane's battery supply, the signal is not audible until the correct frequency is adjusted during the radio check.) However, some pilots who may be in a hurry to exit their planes bypass this last step, creating a situation where the signal is going off in a vacant (and locked) plane. Since there is no way to know if the signal is false beforehand, CAP still responds to the signal, locates it and sends out personnel as it normally does on a real call.
Desmarais recalls a recent incident where nearly 20 CAP air and ground team members responded to a false ELT signal in an aircraft that was parked and locked at an airport in Indiana.
"It was one of those cases where the pilot walked away without running the last step in his checklist," recalls Desmarais. The mission took some time and involved quite a few personnel.
Fortunately, owners have become better educated about the need to check for ELT signals, says Desmarais. He notes that the AFRCC has begun to watch pilots who continually have false ELT alarms, and fines and/or terms of imprisonment (up to $10,000 and a year in prison) have been enacted for those who repeatedly fail to turn off the signal or use the device recklessly. Additionally, Colorado and California have laws in place that allow CAP to bill the pilot for the cost of sending out personnel in response to the false alarm.
"We are not an ambulance service," notes Desmarais. "Most of our responses are based on MOUs and agreements completed ahead of time with states, local counties or federal agencies. We're providing mutual aid to a designated agency, because in many areas, law enforcement is responsible for search and rescue as well as other disaster operations."
Desmarais also notes that while CAP provides nearly 85% of the SAR response to aviation accidents involving light aircraft, CAP does not necessarily respond to every request it gets for aid.
"Each state designates an agency that is responsible for aviation and SAR-related emergencies, and in about half the states, CAP is the primary agency for ELTs and air-related emergencies. In the other states, they usually go through an emergency operations command, which is many times the local sheriff's department or some other primary responder. In many cases, CAP is that unit."
Additionally, if an aviation accident occurs in navigable waters, the U.S. Coast Guard is usually contacted to send personnel to respond, rather than CAP itself. However, CAP does conduct SAR missions over rivers and lakes for flood victims who may be trapped in water.
CAP currently employs approximately 3,700 pilots nationwide for SAR missions. These personnel must have at least 200 hours of pilot command time, but most have more than 1,000 hours in light aircraft. Many have jobs as full-time commercial pilots or have extensive light aircraft piloting experience in the military. Pilots receive continuous training and take part in regular training missions in front of other certified pilots and FAA or CAP examiners to keep their skills current. They typically fly either Cessna 182s or Cessna 172s, which are single-engine, 3- or 4-seat airplanes.
Riding with the pilot on each mission are an observer and a scanner. CAP currently employs approximately 6,400 observers and 6,400 scanners. Along with the pilots, that amounts to a total of more than 16,000 air crew members nationwide, who fly a total of nearly 130,000 hours each year.
"The observer basically assists the pilot in the front seat," notes Desmarais. "He handles navigation, communication and flight-related skills for the mission so that the pilot can focus on flying the airplane. The scanner sits in the back seat of the airplane and looks for a specific target or place. For example, during damage assessment, the scanner will try to see if a dam is overflowing or if a building has been damaged."
According to Desmarais, CAP owns and operates more than 500 Cessna airplanes nationwide, but CAP members often use their own planes, bringing the total number of planes available nationwide to more than 3,000.
None of the air crew are required to be medically trained in dealing with emergencies, since their primary job is to search for, and locate, the missing pilot and aircraft. Additionally, the planes used are not typically designed to transport patients. Desmarais says that on rare occasions (once every few years), CAP will use one of 10 specially equipped planes to transport a patient in severe trauma. However, the vast majority of the time, appropriate medivac helicopter crews are contacted once it is determined that a found pilot needs medical attention at a facility most easily reached by air.
Conversely, ground personnel are the ones most likely to come into contact with a missing pilot, and these personnel are trained to various degrees to deal with medical emergencies.
Nationwide, CAP has around 15,000 emergency ground crew personnel and owns 950 ground vehicles to support their missions. A typical mission will usually have a ground team of 6—12 people led by a team leader.
"Team members are generally people who have basic search skills and can perform electronic and standard line searching," notes Desmarais, who himself has about 11 years of ground search and rescue experience with CAP. "They learn patient packaging based on the equipment that is available to them locally and they also receive BLS, CPR and first aid training."
Team leaders often have more extensive training, says Desmarais.
"Team leaders have additional skills training. Most of them either have advanced first aid or first responder training, and many are EMTs, nurses or doctors. However, they also receive additional training in line navigation and team management."
Team members and leaders are also trained in long-term survival and wilderness medicine techniques as preparation for missions that might extend beyond the norm, and they receive training in extrication procedures as well.
Another area in which team leaders must be proficient is crash site security. Often, during a SAR mission, ground team leaders must take on a law enforcement role in terms of keeping people away from a crash site to protect them from harm. While regulations prevent team leaders from physically restraining onlookers, they can warn people to stay clear of a crash site, says Desmarais.
"There's usually a major hazardous materials issue with most aircraft accidents. You don't just have the problems of dealing with bloodborne pathogens or patients getting cut up and mangled in an accident, but you also have fuel issues to deal with," explains Desmarais.
Additionally, teams often do not know what is being carried on a plane until they arrive at the site. This could pose an added challenge to rescuers in the event it is determined that the plane was transporting hazardous materials.
In addition to the above responsibilities, team leaders are usually trained in critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) as well, since most aviation accidents involve fatalities. Because of the serious nature of ground team search and rescues, CAP requires members to be experienced before going out on these missions. The agency usually does not allow its cadets (who are generally between 16 and 18 years of age) to go out on these missions due to their age and lack of experience.
"In many cases, we can't launch an air crew until several hours after the incident, but we can put a ground crew into the area fairly soon. I've been on many missions where we never even launched an air crew because the ground was just socked in with fog," says Desmarais.
Sometimes, ground crews are ordered ahead of air crews because it takes them longer to reach a site. The typical ground crew traveling in an emergency response vehicle at 50 or 60 mph will not reach a scene as quickly as an air crew flying in a Cessna 172 or 182 at 110 mph. Launching ground personnel early gives them a head start.
As part of the pre-existing mutual-aid agreement, mission coordinators often call local first responders (sheriff's department, search and rescue personnel, etc.) to arrive on scene to help out if necessary.
"What normally happens is that the mission coordinator will call local law enforcement or EMS providers and these personnel either set up side by side with the CAP ground team or they are given a point of contact. The team leader coordinates their arrival and what needs to be done before they get there," says Desmarais.
Many ground personnel take on more emergency medical training in order to be of more service to accident victims when they arrive on scene.
"A lot of our personnel go for additional training to become EMTs or to receive advanced skills just so they can help out more when they're on scene. That makes life a little bit easier since they can speak the same language as other emergency medical personnel on scene," explains Desmarais.
Linking air and ground crews together (as well as outside agencies with CAP teams) is a communications network that is standardized to certain frequencies so that everyone can reach each other. CAP operates more than 6,000 fixed land stations and more than 10,000 land and airmobile radios nationwide, accounting for one of the largest communications systems in the country. CAP also operates the National Digital Radio Network, consisting of more than 2,000 computer-based radio stations that provide a link to the system that does not rely on telephone lines, which can be damaged in the event of a major disaster.
Typically, communications are easier during search and rescue missions than during disaster relief missions, which often involve many different agencies.
"Typically, we don't run into as many problems in the SAR environment, because most of the time we don't end up with a lot of additional personnel in the area, and for the searches that we're involved in, we're the main player. Communications for our personnel is fairly easy, because most of our personnel are standardized," says Desmarais.
"The main issue is to establish agreements ahead of time so everyone knows what frequencies they're using, what their resources are and if they are going to be able to use the same frequencies," adds Desmarais.
Often, CAP is asked to provide communications assistance during disasters, according to Desmarais.
"During the recent fires in Florida, we provided communications support for the U.S. Forestry Service personnel who were out in the field. Because Florida is a flat area, it is tough to get point-to-point communications at the right distance without having a tower, and most of the towers could not be accessed because of the fires, so we put up an airplane that had an airborne repeater through which personnel could communicate."
During the DR operation following Hurricane Andrew, CAP also assisted with communications support.
"I worked the first five days after Hurricane Andrew, and there was no telephone service. We set up a generator with mobile HF and local support radios for personnel to use during the disaster, and we passed messages back and forth to FEMA and other federal agencies over the HF radio, because even cellular phones were not working," recalls Desmarais.
Federal agencies often rely on CAP's communications assistance because it allows them to use their personnel for other aspects of a relief mission.
"We do a lot of communications support for FEMA where they come in and use our communications resources because they don't have to spend a lot of additional mantime and labor on their own personnel and they can use their workforce for other things," explains Desmarais.
Unlike FEMA, the American Red Cross and other disaster relief agencies, CAP does not typically set up shop during a disaster but rather comes in during the first few days to lend assistance and then may offer support when needed thereafter.
"We're only involved during the first couple of days by doing a lot of damage assessment photos and that sort of thing," notes Desmarais. "We're not like FEMA personnel who come in and set up a headquarters and stay for a month or two, because most of our personnel are taking off work in many cases to do these missions."
Sometimes, CAP is called on to provide more long-term assistance, but this is almost always in a specific support role and usually does not involve crews being at the site for very long.
"During the 1997 winter storms in the northeast United States, we had a month-long mission every couple of days where we took assessment photos so that people could see how things were being fixed," recalls Desmarais.
One interesting role that CAP sometimes plays is that of escort to state governors and even the President of the United States immediately following a major disaster.
"Sometimes you see the President or state governors flying into an area if their state has been affected by a disaster," says Desmarais. "In many instances, when they're flying into an area, it's by a CAP member to show them what the area looked like."
"Most of our international missions are border-type missions. Rarely do we end up going into another country to do search and rescue," says Desmarais.
Most often, CAP searches for missing aircraft along the Canadian border. CAP will coordinate efforts on the U.S. side of the border, while a similar agency will handle search efforts on the Canadian side. Representatives from each side may meet to discuss the operation. In this type of mission, the State Department is contacted ahead of time.
CAP also maintains several overseas units that are set up at U.S. Air Force bases in Germany, on the Virgin Islands, in Guam and in other areas. These personnel work with the local agencies in those areas.
Sometimes, the patrol is called on to respond to an international incident that takes place on U.S. soil.
"Occasionally, we have international incidents we deal with in the United States, where you may have a foreign dignitary flying in a small plane that ends up crashing. Most of the coordination for that type of mission is with the State Department and other federal agencies," says Desmarais.
According to Desmarais, the Civil Air Patrol is always looking for EMS personnel to assist with training or work with CAP teams. For more information about the Civil Air Patrol, consult the CAP website at http://www.cap.af.mil, or call 800/FLY-2338.
NOV/DEC 1998