SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The worst case scenario for the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) happened over the weekend – but luckily it was just a training exercise.

About 80 people and 14 aircraft from British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the Yukon, the NWT and Nunavut, descended on the Spur Aviation hangar over the weekend to practise around 30 simulated search and rescue operations.

The search and rescue teams were sent out to find "targets," volunteers who spent all day within 100 km of Yellowknife, doing a variety of leisure activities like camping, fishing, and boating. The targets were identified by yellow tarps on the ground.

CASARA zone commander, David Taylor, said the operation gave participants a chance to train in a multi aircraft situation.

"One of the purposes of this exercise is, usually we have one aircraft in Yellowknife to exercise with, today we have 14," said Taylor.

"Usually when someone's missing, we send out an aircraft and find it. If they don't find them then we send out more and more resources. This is what you would get after a day or two of still not finding them."

He said the training exercises mean things will go more smoothly should a similar situation arise in the future.

"If this ever happens in Yellowknife, we have people who have an idea of what we would need to do, so that it's not a total surprise," he said.

He added that the chance to network and swap knowledge with other crews was another beneficial bi-product of the event.

"We're giving people an opportunity to fly with crews from other areas, and with that they learn techniques that other crews use. Everybody is learning something new from somebody else," he said.

Huddled in a small room were several people studying maps, relaying radio messages and coordinating flights, many of whom had never met before the weekend.

"I don't even know most of the people," said Taylor.

Doing a quick survey of the room, he found there were people from Yellowknife, Fort Smith, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Red Deer, Cambridge Bay and Calgary.

Pilot Frank Schuurmans, from Regina, Sask., said the difficult terrain surrounding Yellowknife was a good learning experience.

One of the event's highlights was the arrival of the 435 Squadron CC-130 Hercules from Winnipeg. The crew provided training for spotters (search and rescue lookouts) in the unique conditions of inside the Hercules.

"The Hercules is much larger than the smaller planes they're used to. The spotters and the pilots are not right next to each other so communication becomes more difficult," said 435 Squadron commander and pilot, Richard Kinner.

"This is a great exercise for all our members. It gives us a chance to fly in different terrain. What's nice is it gives our people an opportunity to train in areas they haven't experienced before," he said.

He said Yellowknife's landscape was "challenging" and posed unique problems for search and rescue.

"I guess it's the lack of simple landing sights, it's the water, the weather. It's a combination of everything," he said.