Derek Neary
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 25/98) - No submarines were detected Saturday. No polar bears or muskoxen either.

The Canadian Forces Northern Area headquarters conducted a 10-hour patrol over the Western Arctic in a Comox, B.C.-based Aurora aircraft Saturday. Twenty such patrols are carried out throughout the year, with the Eastern Arctic patrols performed by Auroras from Nova Scotia.

Routine surveillance is among the top priorities for the flights.

"It's part and parcel of maintaining Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic," said Col. Pierre Leblanc, commander of CFNA, making his second trip with the Aurora crew "just to be better acquainted with the work they do."

Some of their duties include dropping Sonabuoys, tubular devices that detect frequencies of submarines and can measure water temperature. Three members of the 12-man crew are electronic sensor operators who monitor the ground below with radar, infra-red equipment and magnetic anomaly detectors.

The Aurora is designed to specialize in hunting subs and can be armed with torpedoes for that purpose. At a maximum speed of 750 km/h it's the world's second-fastest turbo-prop airplane. It can remain airborne up to 18 hours without refuelling.

Before each trip, the squadron commander will receive instructions for specific tasks that CFNA may want achieved as well. For instance, on Saturday, the plane's belly camera was loaded with film to photograph the Distant Early Warning sites where the Department of National Defence has a $250 million environmental cleanup under way.

The sites were stocked with PCBs in the 50s when its dangers were unknown. Now that more PCB-tainted paint has been noticed, the project will become even more costly, Leblanc noted.

Saturday's patrol encompassed a total distance of close to 3,200 kilometres. The farthest point was Mould Bay on Prince Patrick Island. Most of the distance was covered at an altitude of 6,600 metres, but the low-level passes over the selected sites were performed as low as 90 metres.

Foggy weather prevented the crew from surveying a number of areas, including Mercy Bay on the north coast of Banks Island, where HMS Investigator, a ship involved in the search for Sir John Franklin, is thought to have sunk.

Heading southbound back towards Yellowknife, the plane passed over Cambridge Bay, where snowmobile races were in progress. BHP's Ekati mine site was also photographed by the Aurora crew.

The majority of patrol flights take place between April and October, according to Leblanc.