Paula White
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 14/99) - Pilots Carl Falsnes and Shane McPherson had just left Fort Good Hope when the call came in.

According to officials at Rescue Co-ordination Centre Trenton (Ontario), a plane was in trouble in the Norman Wells area. It was just after 9 p.m. on May 4. The officials asked Falsnes and McPherson to start searching. The two didn't hesitate.

"We were pleased to be able to help," said Falsnes.

Falsnes, who together with his wife Darina and father Olav operates Arctic Wings in Inuvik, said he and McPherson had flown a medical charter (non-emergency) to Fort Good Hope earlier that day. They were on their way back to Inuvik when they were contacted. After checking to see that the passenger didn't mind, the men set about trying to find the plane.

About two and a half hours later, Falsnes and McPherson found it. The pilot and passenger, both from Norman Wells, were both uninjured. The plane, a privately-owned Cessna 140, wasn't so lucky.

"It (the plane) was laying upside down on the lake," Falsnes said.

According to Capt. Ray Jacobson, an air controller with RCC Trenton, "a snowbank ruined a nice landing."

"They landed on the lake, they were slowing down when they hit a snowbank and the airplane flipped upside down," Jacobson said. "But both gentlemen egressed (exited the plane) without even so much as a bruise."

The accident set off the plane's Emergency Locator Transmitter, which sends a signal via satellite to a rescue centre. From this signal, search planes can determine the locations of downed aircraft. Falsnes, who is chief pilot for Arctic Wings as well as its director of flight operations, said he and McPherson flew in a pattern until they heard the ELT and were able to home in on it.

"As soon as I got close, he launched a flare," he said.

Falsnes explained when a plane is in trouble, it is standard procedure for rescue officials to engage the help of an aircraft in the vicinity. He added it isn't the first time he's been asked to take part in a search, but it is "the first time I've actually found the airplane."

"We were just glad to see people walking around," he said.

The men were picked up by helicopter, taken to Norman Wells where they were checked for injury and then released.