Note: Civil Aviation Contingency Operations (CACO) Division is now part of National Operations.

Civil Aviation Contingency Operations (CACO) Division, has responsibilities for contingency planning and occurrence reporting in both the national and regional regulatory and operational fields of Civil Aviation, and is the Civil Aviation focal point for emergency preparedness activities.

To learn more about us, check out our roles and responsibilities and our day-to-day operations.

Roles and Responsibilities 

CACO has the following roles and responsibilities with regard to Aviation Operations and Emergency Preparedness:

• Managing and operating a 24 hour/day Aviation Operations Centre including an aviation reporting system involving the tracking of aviation related incidents, accidents and high profile events for the purpose of keeping senior managers appraised of operations in the NCATS and where applicable, triggering operational responses and activations of the TCSC and RTCSCs;
• Developing, maintaining and implementing contingency plans for use by Headquarters and Regional personnel;
• Developing, conducting and evaluating aviation exercises or participating in multi-modal exercises as required to comply with the Emergency Preparedness Act;
• Seeking participation, advice or assistance from other branches of Transport (TC); and
• Communicating with designated persons in other Federal Departments where that department would be affected by any Aviation Contingency involving components of the National Civil Air Transportation System (NCATS).

Day-to-day Operations:

• Daily monitoring of the NCATS including the Air Navigation System, radars, navigation aids, Air Traffic Control, and all Canadian Certified Airports;
• Providing 24/7 National Aviation Operations capability to support Canadian Aviation operations whether in the NCATS or during operations abroad;
• Providing advice to ATS and Foreign Affairs on a 24/7 basis regarding approval for unscheduled use of Canadian airspace by foreign aircraft;
• Responding to occurrences in the NCATS (crashes, in-flight emergencies, reduced ANS or airport operations, etc.) by advising senior management and/or "activating" the TCSC and providing the Director and the air staff required to operate it;
• Supporting other branches who activate the TCSC with air staff and augmentees for hijacks, bomb threats, etc.;
• Supporting NASA during space launches by maintaining operations standby in case of an emergency landing of the space vehicle at Gander, Goose Bay, Halifax, St. Johns or Stephenville airports;
• Supporting external agencies in coordinating special airspace requirements and restrictions via NOTAMS;
• Supporting the Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness (OCIPEP) in coordinating evacuations by civil aircraft during emergencies;
• Working with Foreign Affairs, FAA, TC Security and other agencies involving accidents, illegal acts (hijack, bomb threats) or the impounding of Canadian registered, owned or operated aircraft anywhere in the world;
• Completing contingency planning for air emergencies, major failures of the ATS, labour disputes, etc. to minimize the operational affect on the NCATS;
• Planning and conducting Aviation exercises to test components and procedures of the NCATS with specific government and/or foreign departments (NAV CANADA, Airports, FAA, etc.);
• Conducting training and developing procedures for duty officers and augmentees to handle 24/7 operations in CACO and/or the TCSC;
• Supporting the Security and Emergency Preparedness Directorate (SEP) by providing Aviation information for their Emergency Planning function - supporting SEP during joint functional and/or multi-modal: planning meetings; exercises or operational responses "activations", of the TCSC; and
• Providing a national focal point for reports of Fireballs and Meteorites.