YELLOWKNIFE - What happens when a plane goes missing in the North?

A group of volunteers will learn the answer this weekend when Joint Task Force North and the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) stage a joint search and rescue exercise.

David Taylor says the weekend exercise will give volunteers real-time experience.

David Taylor, CASARA training officer in the NWT, said that CASARA has two roles: to promote aviation safety and to assist the Canadian Forces in search and rescue."

Canadian Forces and the RCMP both draw on CASARA for assistance, Taylor said.

In the past year, the Yellowknife branch was asked five times by the RCMP and three times by the Canadian Forces to send planes on search missions, Taylor said.

The weekend exercise will simulate a major search for a missing plane and its survivors along a 600 km flight path.

The challenge is that the plane could have deviated from that path by as much as 40 km, Taylor said.

"Given the track and the range, this requires searching12,000-square kilometres. There's a lot of ground to cover and we have to get there quickly."

The search area will be divided into six blocks to allow as many of the pilots as possible to participate over the three days.

"This kind of training is important because CASARA is a self-trained organization," he said.

Ten civilian planes will be used in the exercise; eight from Alberta, one from Fort Smith and one from Yellowknife.

"We'll have CASARA people working in the military operation centre providing assistance."

Taylor said there would be four people per plane, and each plane requires one person to communicate to them.