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June rescue efforts successful Search and rescue committees kept busy over weekend
Danielle Sachs
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 8, 2013
NUNAVUT
June was a busy month for search and rescue operations across Nunavut.
Sgt. Darcy Keating stands on a glacier beside a Cormorant helicopter. Two French hikers had to be rescued after one of them fell 37 metres into a crevasse in Auyuittuq National Park on April 15, 2011. - photo courtesy of the Department of National Defence |
Following the rescue of more than 30 tourists and hunters from separate ice floes near Arctic Bay June 26, two more groups were stranded on moving ice in Cape Dorset and Pond Inlet.
In Cape Dorset three boaters were reported missing on the same day. The hunters were about 50 km from the community and, after a call to the RCMP at around 1 a.m. June 29, they were found later in the evening.
In Pond Inlet some people in a group of more than 30 hunters that had gone out narwhal hunting in the morning of June 30 were trapped when a piece of ice from the floe edge broke off and sent them adrift.
The rescue took less than 12 hours and involved the help of a helicopter pilot who was in the area to bring researchers to their sites, according to the Pond Inlet search and rescue committee.
The 24 people that were trapped all made it back to the community by 9:30 p.m. the same day. Some of the hunters made it off the ice floe before it began drifting.
The RCMP said no one was reported injured in either of the incidents.
The two most recent rescue operations came days after one of the largest rescue operations in Nunavut when 30 tourists and hunters had to be rescued on June 26 40 km north of Arctic Bay in Admiralty Inlet.
In that rescue, six aircraft from the Royal Canadian Airforce were called in. The RCMP, Nunavut Protection Services and Emergency Measures Organization also took part in the rescue operation.
The Department of Community and Government Services emphasized the importance of preparing for longer stays on the land than anticipated. A day trip can quickly turn into a three- or four-day stay and hunters should prepare accordingly.
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