SICAMOUS – If you looked out over Shuswap Lake Monday you might have seen a helicopter lowering a rescue technician towards a search and rescue boat waiting in the water. It was a dramatic scene but there was no emergency. Monday’s heroics were all practice for the search and rescue crews involved.
Vernon Search and Rescue members winched down from the helicopter while a Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue crew operated the boat below. The two organizations paired up to practice helicopter winch rescues from a boat. They aim to be able to work together and deploy Vernon’s helicopter winch rescue team on Shuswap and Mara Lakes when real emergencies strike.
The rescue technique is new to local search and rescue teams and may help save lives on the water.
In the past when someone was critically injured on the water an air ambulance landed in the area, but search and rescue crews still had to get the patient to the landing site.
“We’ve had to transport them by water,” says Rob Sutherland, station leader for the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue. “We need to save minutes and basically Vernon Search and Rescue and the helicopter will come in and save those minutes and possibly save a lot of lives.”
Whether they are rescuing an injured patient or someone in distress in a hard to reach location, the helicopter winch rescue team could be deployed on the lakes this boating season.
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