Fred Wilson
HPAC/ACVL Member
Joined: 10 Dec 2014
Posts: 45
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 07:29 pm Post subject: Initiate S&R by FIC, not by dialling 911 in Canada |
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911 should not be called for Hang Gliding and Paragliding or PPG /PHG aviation Search and Rescue in Canada.
(A Local Volunteer S&R was overwhelmed with the demands on their resources recently.)
The appropriate agency to initiate this is Flight Information Centre (FIC)
1-866-992-7433 (1-866-WXBRIEF) (Canada wide, it routes you to your nearest regional FIC.) (1-866-GOMÉTÉO in French)
1-866-541-4101 locks you into Kamloops FIC for BC wide services.
From: http://www.navcanada.ca/NavCanada.asp?Language=en&Content=ContentDefinitionFiles/Services/ANSPrograms/FIC/FlightInformationServices/default.xml#Emergency
“In the event of an aircraft emergency, pilots can request emergency services by contacting the FIC via an enroute frequency or any other NAV CANADA operational facilities.
Specialists at the FIC offer VFR alerting services, conduct communication searches, and notify Search and Rescue (SAR) in the event of an overdue flight.”
FIC can then contact the RCMP and as appropriate CASARA: http://www.casara.ca/
FIC can also initiate response by the (British Columbia example) Provincial Emergency Program’s (PEP) http://www.pep.gov.bc.ca PEPAIR.
See: http://www.pep.gov.bc.ca/hazard_preparedness/PEPAir_Information.html and http://www.embc-air.org/
All these levels of S&R responses initiated by FIC can implement Federal and Provincial Funding for these incidents.
Seondly, S&R via 911 has been known to charge victims - examples include some skiiers that skiid out of bounds locally... given extended reasons such as this.
There is no record of any aviation S&R initiated by FIC resulting in charges to the victim.
In fact, Jim DelaHunt (WCSC President) stated CASARA complained to him because we were not calling them out enough.
- Guess they have to justify annual Federal Funding like any other agency!
Just so you know.
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