400 ends Op HURRICANE on a SAR note

By Captain Rae Joseph

On top of the World - Flight Engineer Master Corporal Jean-Guy Poitras stands beside one of 400 Tactical Helicopter Squadron's CH-146 Griffon which is on top of Radar Station Ida just west of Canadian Forces Station Alert. Crews from 1 Wing’s 400 THS were in the Arctic for Op HURRICANE, an annual maintenance operation of the High Arctic Data Communication System (HADC and HADC II) CREDIT: 400 THS

While most people have been battling the bugs and scorching heat that plagues southern Ontario every summer, one Air Force squadron found a sure way to beat the heat – well, for a few weeks at least.

Two CH-146 Griffon crews from 1 Wing’s 400 Tactical Helicopter Squadron (THS) have just returned from Op HURRICANE which ran from early June until July 24 in a place far, far away from high humidity and heat waves.

“Op HURRICANE is the annual maintenance of the High Arctic Data Communication Systems (HADCS),” said Captain Marco Adebar, Deputy Officer of Primary Interest (OPU) for the operation.

The HADCS is a secure data communication system between Canadian Forces Station Alert and Ottawa. The system is in part composed of a chain of six line-of-sight (LOS) microwave repeaters located on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut through CFS Alert to Eureka and a satellite link between Eureka and Ottawa.
Helicopters from 1 Wing are used because of their ability to navigate through the remote, northern terrain as well as limited transportation resources available in the North.

“We transport replacement batteries and technicians to the repeaters’ sites,” said Capt Adebar, who added that this operation rotated between 400 THS and 1 Wing’s other Reserve unit 438 Escadron tactique d’hélicoptère, based at St. Hubert, PQ.

It wasn’t until the crews were wrapping up Op HURRICANE and heading home that things heated up.

On July 22, one of the Griffon crews responded to a crash call and rescued five people after a B206 Long Ranger helicopter made an emergency landing about nine miles out of Eureka. Within 20 minutes the Griffon was airborne and transported a military medic to the crash site. The pilot and the four passengers were taken back to Eureka for further medical care.

In a separate incident on July 28, the crew was tasked again while waiting out the weather in Pelly Bay. This time the Griffon crew picked up military Search and Rescue technicians who had been called in to help a lone pilot whose Cessna crashed the day before en route to Repulse Bay.

All in a day’s work for the Air Force when one mission can easily roll into another.

Capt Joseph is the 1 Wing Public Affairs Officer.