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| The crew of Maj. Gilbert Thibault, Aircraft Commander, Capt. Andrew Mercer, First Officer, Master Cpl. Rob Vidito, Flight Engineer, SAR Techs Sgt. Emilio Dechantal, Master Cpl. Dave Cooper and Cpl. Scott Elliston were presented the award during the National Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX 03) held in Gander, Nfld. from Oct. 1-4, 2003. Photo by Cpl. Bill Parrott |
The rescue occurred Jan. 23, 2003 when the 133-metre Finnish freighter Camilla, lost engine power and steerage capacity and was adrift in stormy seas with evening rapidly approaching. With winds gusting up to 70 km/h and 10-metre waves crashing over the deck, the vessel was in danger of capsizing.
Due to the distance of the rescue, the Cormorant required a lot of fuel and had to be stripped of all non-essential equipment so it could pick up the 16 Camilla crew members, making it the largest rescue ever with the Cormorant aircraft. Complicating an already daring rescue was the fact that the crew temporarily experienced a communication failure while refuelling on the Henry Goodrich oil platform en-route to the scene.
Once the crew reached the Camilla, the continuous violent rolling and pitching of the vessel made the positioning of the aircraft to the vessel extremely difficult. The pilot could only hold a constant position for seconds at a time. Maj. Thibault said they calculated that they only had one hour and 15 minutes to perform the extraction, which was completed with five minutes to spare before making the one-hour flight to St. John's, Nfld.
The trophy was commissioned and given to the Canadian Forces last year by Agusta-Westland / EHI, makers of the Cormorant helicopter. The award, which recognizes the heroic efforts of search and rescue professionals, will be presented annually to the helicopter crew who performs the most demanding rescue operation within Canada's area of responsibility. The honour can be awarded to either civilian government or military helicopter crews and they do not have to be flying the Cormorant EH101.
The selection committee is comprised of 1 CAD HQ, Transport Canada, the National Search and Rescue Secretariat, the Helicopter Association of Canada and Agusta-Westland / EHI Industries.
"We gave (the trophy) to the Chief of the Air Staff as his gift because Canada had no award to recognize the efforts of a crew," said Jeremy Tracy, Chief test pilot and Director of operations in Canada for Team Cormorant. "Canada has a tremendous background in search and rescue and they have set themselves up as world leaders."
"This rescue demonstrated an outstanding piece of airmanship for all five crew members, required extraordinary leadership skills, tremendous crew coordination, judgment and courage," said Lt. Col. Smith, A3 SAR, 1 CAD.
The award is greatly appreciated by the search and rescue community. "This recognition goes a long way," said Master Cpl. Vidito. "It is nice to get recognized. If Canada really knew what search and rescue did, they would be amazed."
Lt. Faubert is with 1 Canadian Air Division Public Affairs.
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