Episode 95: The Rescue Series: Rescue 901 and the MSC Baltic III Rescue on the CH-149 Cormorant Part 3 - Pete Wright and Greg Hudson

In the final part of the MSC Baltic III series, Major Pete Wright and Warrant Officer Greg Hudson describe the dramatic rescue itself.

After launching from Gander and racing toward the vessel in distress, the CH-149 Cormorant crew arrives on scene and begins the complex task of hoisting sailors from the stricken cargo ship in harsh winter conditions off Newfoundland.

Pete explains the challenges of positioning the helicopter over a moving ship in turbulent conditions, while Greg takes listeners inside the rescue itself, describing the demanding work of hoisting survivors from the vessel and coordinating closely with the flight crew above.

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Bryan: 00:57

Alright. We're ready for departure here at The Pilot Project Podcast, the best source for stories and advice from RCAF and Mission Aviation Pilots brought to you by Sky's Magazine. I'm your host, Brian Morrison. And with me today here for our conclusion on the series of the MSC Baltic three Rescue is special guest major Pete Wright, former commanding officer of one zero three Star Squadron in Gander, Newfoundland, and warrant officer Greg Hudson, former Star Tech lead of one zero three Star Squadron. Guys, thank you once again for being on the show.

Pete: 01:23

Thanks for having us.

Greg: 01:24

Great to be here.

Bryan: 01:26

So today we'll be talking about the conclusion of the rescue as well as some of the lessons learned. Listeners can check out part one to hear about their early days in training and part two to hear about the early stages of the rescue. So during while this is all going on, the AC Matthew Cox, he's still fighting all these same conditions. Like, did it let up at all or was it pretty constant that you guys had to fight the whole time you're in the hover?

Pete: 01:49

No. It it was, I'd say it was pretty constant throughout. What did change was, you know, the longer we stayed there, he was picking up different references on the boat, which helped him kinda bring that that, like, every flight engineer will kinda give you a box or an area where you can kinda drift in and before they'll they'll start to call your drifter or be significantly concerned about what you're doing or what or what you're not doing. And as you know, the longer he flew, obviously, you could tell it was quite tiring. But, you know, that that box was getting smaller and smaller, and and he was the inputs to counter, the conditions he was dealing with were becoming more and more precise.

Pete: 02:34

Like, they they weren't like a, oh, there's a there's a big change or there's a big gust or or our nose just just went to to left 15 degrees. Like, there there there there wasn't any overcontrolling that was happening. The all the responses and required inputs were were pretty direct and precise, which was, good to see. There was one point where, I think we had just a quick pause and to control just to, like, give them a a half second break. But, like, at the end of the day, it was it was pretty much once we started hoisting, it was nonstop until, until the last one was up.

Bryan: 03:09

With these kind of conditions where you're fighting like that and the aircraft is going all over the place, we talked about stable platform and, you know, for the listeners that basically means trying to keep that hoist as stable as possible. Was there some swing that day? Like in conditions like that, there must be to an extent like the basket or the stokes slitter has got be swinging around a little bit. Right?

Pete: 03:29

Yeah. There there there was a little bit. Obviously, I I don't have a very good perspective. So Greg might be able to kind of give you his his view from from the deck.

Greg: 03:39

Yeah. On the way in for Gary, he was pretty close to first. Cause the first guy went in with because he goes in with no guideline. Right? So there's no no rope to help, control them.

Greg: 03:47

So he went down and he was close to hitting one of the antennas and one of their, like, radio stations, whatever. And, the, you know, the flight engineer just calmly, you know, moved him up a little bit, brought him back. We kinda calmed, slid down, and he kinda dropped right in the spot. You know, really effective, actually, to be honest. I know Pete's, you know, saying the conditions are pretty aggressive, but from us in the back, felt, it felt pretty smooth from what, compared to the boat, to be honest, it was like, you know, sometimes you're in the helicopter and like, oh my god, get me off this helicopter, get me on the, on the ground.

Greg: 04:20

And then you're like, get me off this boat, get me on back on the helicopter. So, yeah, the difference between the platform of the helicopter and the boat that day, the the boat was moving much more aggressively. Like we said, with the slippery deck, I went in. And then after that, we everyone was pretty easy with the guideline because it kind of holds everything to it. So we just gotta be careful when the boat, moves and the got the basket or the stokes comes off the deck of the boat because there's rails surrounding the area that if the flight engineer or the helicopter moves, the there's chance that the the basket or the stokes could strike the rail, get caught on the rail, get snagged on the rail, the cable could get snagged on the rail like what happened to the Atlantic Destiny.

Greg: 05:01

Right? So we were very cognizant of, the cable and how much, extra line it had in it. Right? So some extra, cable out, paying out some cable from the flight engineer to make sure that we're not doing that. But the guideline really helps to control that swing a lot for us.

Greg: 05:16

So there there's always gonna be some swinging, but not anything too dramatic due to the guidelines.

Bryan: 05:21

Okay.

Pete: 05:22

Yeah. And I'd say, like, from the, the flight engineer, Todd was exceptional that day. He was super calm. And, it the the one comment that I'll never forget that he made at the airport in Deer Lake, I was like, Todd, good job. He's just like, well, you know, it was it was just like a training flight, but with 20 hoists.

Pete: 05:44

And I was like, dude, you you this is a big deal. And he's just like, well, I just treated it like another training flight. And and and you can tell, like, throughout, he was super calm. Like, you never really got the any sort of nervous excitement or anything in his voice. He was just kinda like, you know, calling what he's seeing, and we're giving him the, you know, feedback from the front.

Pete: 06:06

And it just it it truly did, condition the side, it truly did function like it should and it would during training, or another star mission. But, yeah. I I think Todd is also very, very modest. And and if if you were to talk to him, you would say, yeah. It was just it was just another day.

Bryan: 06:26

That's awesome. You meet people sometimes who can get into these situations and just stay, like, super calm. Just like you said, treat it like almost this is a training mission basically. Like, let's just get this done. I really admire that.

Pete: 06:39

Yeah. It's it was it was awesome.

Bryan: 06:42

So, Greg, we've talked a lot about the fact that you were talking to Pete throughout the mission. How do the Sartex maintain comms with the helicopter?

Greg: 06:50

Just got a standard, like a Motorola radio and we're just on the same channel. So we'll do a comms check or whatever before we leave. And then I had the you can set up your radio different ways where it can be just this sets in your pocket and you can have the speaker just blaring out. I like mine connected right to my headset, so, I can hear him at all times. So I had my helmet on with my headset on plugged into my radio and I could just talk, push a button and just talk to talk to them and confirm what, we had.

Greg: 07:17

We got a great, great closed loop communications and, we've done it. It's pretty standard. Every time we do a hoist, we always do radio checks. And when we're on the ground to make sure everything's working, brief sequences from the ground, very, very normal. So this was just another day of communication for us, I think.

Greg: 07:35

Pretty pretty standard.

Bryan: 07:37

Okay. So we've talked about the production line hoisting process that you guys use to get everyone off the ship. What were the most dangerous or unpredictable moments during those sixty minutes of hoisting?

Greg: 07:48

I know for us on the deck, it was the slip slipperiness of the deck. The deck was covered in ice. So when Gary and Alain were guide lining because they just kind of switched off at one point, just getting slapped, like you're getting smashed against the, the wall behind because they're backing onto the, to part of the ship. So there's, they couldn't, there's no, no grip on the sheet on your feet or on your knees. So you weren't able to, so as, as the boat moved, you would slide towards or away from the basket and the stokes.

Greg: 08:17

So obviously being in jeopardy of getting, that in the face or in the teeth, as it starts to go up in the guidelines sequence, That's a bit of a hazard. Yeah, once the basket started came in, come down, we had like a pretty, pretty slick assembly line. LM was on the basket, doing the guideline, the basket with the rope. He can bring the basket right to him. And then I was on the corner and there's a handrail on the corner and Gary was in the doorway.

Greg: 08:42

So Gary was prepping patients in the doorway and then he was sending them out to me and I was I was bringing them along the rail because they were also also slippery, obviously. So I was holding to make sure I'm like, man, these guys aren't injured right now. The last thing we needed someone to get injured because we're not, taking care of them as we get them off the boat. So I'd hand help, I hold them right to the corner. And then as the basket came down, LM would slide it over to me like a curling rock on the ice.

Greg: 09:08

And I would just kind of catch it and load the guys in and we had a great and I'd hold the I'd hold the basket and the line and clear the cable brief patients were the passengers were already briefed, by Gary in the doorway. And then as soon as they're we are ready, I'll give the thumbs up to the flight engineer and he brings the basket off the deck and I help control it with Gauguin. And as soon as that's done, I let that sequence take action. And I moved back to Gary to get the next patient. We just kept that sequence over and over until all the sailors were off the vessel.

Greg: 09:40

And then, Alain went up. I went inside as Gary guided him up into the helicopter. I did another quick, final check of the boat to make sure we didn't leave any equipment or any personnel behind. And then by the time I came out, I was ready to get off the boat and then Gary, off the boat as well.

Bryan: 09:57

Wow. So Pete, that's a long hour of hoisting. What's going through your mind during all that?

Pete: 10:02

I think in general, it was just, trying to stay ahead of that moment. You know, things at one point, things start to, happen fairly smoothly and efficiently. We're, you know, bringing the survivors onboard the helicopter. Some of them were, being seated, right right next to us, kinda where that jump seat normally is. And it it was just trying to stay ahead of the helicopter, trying to think of ways to either make things more efficient or more helpful to the entire crew.

Pete: 10:33

So at one point, whether it was flying pilot Matt or myself, you know, we'd be calling calling waves. There's a big wave coming, so it gives them, you know, a second or two kind of a heads up. The ship is about to move. And then when the significant attitude changes were happening, you know, at one point, you had to kinda reduce the amount of calls you're making because otherwise, you're you're just saying, you know, your your attitude is 10 degrees nose up. And he's like, yeah.

Pete: 11:00

I I get it. Mhmm. But giving him calls that it it allowed them to kinda understand, you know, from a flight engineer's perspective, like, okay. Our nose attitude is is seven, eight, nine degrees, nose up, 10 degrees, nose up. He's aware.

Pete: 11:17

He doesn't need to think about, you know, calling drift or or monitoring at that point to make sure that we we don't start rocketing backwards. He knows that we're aware of of the condition that we put ourselves in, and and he knows that we are actively trying to rather than a kind of like an uncommanded movement or or over controlling helicopter, we were actively trying to reduce, the amount of drift from that, hoisting spot. So between the radio calls and and just trying to, find useful things to to help out calling waves, calling the next big wave because there was a bit of a pattern to it. And and every once in a while, you can see a significant wave would would approach. And and, you know, those are the ones that, if you look at some of the videos, it it almost looked like the waves overtook, the helicopter at one point just based on the, perspective, the the the viewpoint.

Pete: 12:13

But yeah. Wow.

Bryan: 12:16

So, Greg, we've talked a bit about how the sailors were doing when you arrived. As you got them ready to hoist, you get them on a helicopter, like how's that changing? Were they scared to get into the basket?

Greg: 12:25

A couple of them were a little bit nervous to, yeah, to get in the basket, but kind of just briefed them. Looked at the one guy, said, breathe, kind of coached him through breathing as I was waiting for everything to get set up from, Gogans perspective and make sure we're all good and told him, you know, we were ready. I actually, that patient was in the basket before because he, the stokes was going up at that point. So we already had a prep ready in the basket. I gave him a brief and I just, yeah, I kind of coached him through it.

Greg: 12:52

I think everyone was very excited to get off the boat. So I think, lots of times when people are in those situations, we just, you know, reaffirmed to them that we do this all the time. This is it's all good. We got you. We're going to take care of you.

Greg: 13:05

And I said that to them multiple times and they were, yeah, they were ready to get off that boat. I'm pretty, pretty confident.

Bryan: 13:12

What's it like when you finally hoist the last sailor off the ship?

Greg: 13:16

It was a great feeling. We knew I mean, we were wasn't quite done because we were still on the deck, but at least we knew we didn't have to babysit or manage that anymore because now it's just Gary and I and, you know, total confidence in him that he he can manage himself and myself, but you're not, you know, you're not out of the, out of the danger until you're, you know, well out of that danger until you're back on the helicopter and into the hint of that, other aspects. So yeah, once Gary, once Gary and I were back on the helicopter, I think that's where I was actually like, all right, like this is good. This is good. Let's go.

Bryan: 13:49

Yeah. What does it feel like to do an after action sweep of the ship and be kind of the last person or last people anyways, on a doomed ship? Like what's that like?

Greg: 13:58

Yeah. I don't know. I don't never really thought of it and put in that perspective. But, I don't I think it was just probably just like, felt like, doing my dad do dad diligence, like, doing the we we say in my house, we call it the sergeant major sweep when you're, at the hotel looking for

Bryan: 14:12

Yeah.

Greg: 14:12

Someone lost their left their phone charger behind or I mean, we do it with the troops all the time on like a mountain next where someone will leave a, you know, make sure no one left the carabiner behind and something like that. So, yeah, just going for a sweep and did the the sergeant major sweep, make sure we didn't leave any any people or equipment behind and let's get out of there.

Bryan: 14:31

Yeah. We do the same thing in a hotel. We call it the last chance check. Yeah. Who was the last person on the ship and why?

Greg: 14:39

That would end up being Gary again, Normore. So he had, it was running the guideline when Atlanta went up and I went in to do, the Sergeant Major sweep. Being the senior guy, figured that was my duty. And so, I cleaned up the stuff I could and then grabbed, Gary was guide lining. So it made sense to leave him on the guideline.

Greg: 14:57

I confirmed with him that he was good with that, a solid operator. So he's like, yep, good to go. I, hooked up, sent me on the line and then obviously he doesn't, there's no line for Gary because the first man in the last man out don't have a guideline attached to them. So he, yeah, disconnected everything and came off the ship. I was, it was so full in the helicopter.

Greg: 15:16

I was standing right at the, at the door and I was looking then watching the whole procedure. Same with the insertion. Watched, made sure Gary was safe. And we it's pretty typical for us to stand at the doorway and watch everything that's going on to back up the flight engineer because he's a a busy man. In that moment, he's talking to the pilots, telling what the helicopter needs to do.

Greg: 15:36

He's putting the cable out and pulling the cable back in and and managing any swing. He's trying to mitigate that if the patient or anyone starts swinging. So he's got a lot going on. So we try to just back him up and help make sure nothing's going sideways.

Bryan: 15:51

What's it like, in the inside of a Cormorant with 27 people on board?

Greg: 15:56

It's full. Very hard. It was hard to move. We wanted to check on everyone from a medical aspect just reconfirm, right? Like some of those people I hadn't seen in over an hour.

Greg: 16:04

So trying to climb over top of people, we headed out water bottles to them. We checked on everybody and then we started to do, to get a, like a baseline set of vitals on them to make sure that everyone was, as they say, they say they're good, but it's not their job to say they're good. It's my job to say they're good. So we just to make sure, you know, start getting names and start getting the, like the basic information of their, you know, their heart rate. Yeah.

Greg: 16:29

Are they breathing all right? Cause a couple of guys had a chest injuries. So we want to make sure that there was no underlying stuff that we had missed. If we only had a short transit to Deer Lake, I think it was fifteen minutes. Maybe more feet would tell better.

Greg: 16:42

I was in the back, like I said, busy with those guys. So we were just like, we're going take this time to make sure everyone's check on everyone. Everyone's smiling. Everyone's happy. Everyone's good.

Greg: 16:50

Pass out some waters, check on the couple of patients that are in the stretchers that had been laying down in there for, you know, an hour plus that haven't been checked on in a bit. So that was the primary goal is to make sure everyone was, was good still.

Bryan: 17:03

Did you have any big medical challenges during the transit or was it all fairly smooth?

Greg: 17:07

Moving around, just getting to, to, to where people work to try to crawl over each other. You don't want to step on someone to go check on that guy. So that was definitely challenging. It was a full helicopter. The restriction movement in the back was the biggest challenge.

Bryan: 17:21

Okay.

Greg: 17:21

And then, yeah, that was the no medical challenges.

Bryan: 17:24

Okay. That's well, that's good. Pete, can you walk us through the transit back to Deer Lake and what's going on for you guys up front?

Pete: 17:30

Yeah. Absolutely. So because of the ceilings, we still had to do an IFR transit. The off scene time was 09:55 in the morning, and we landed or we shut down in Deer Lake at 10:34. So thirty nine minute, from last hoist to, to shut down.

Pete: 17:49

And, I agree with Greg. However, it it really did feel like it was fifteen minutes. That time seemed to fly by, throughout the transit. But, anyway, so took control, gave the flying pilot a rest, departed, transited to I wanna say it was two or 3,000 feet, just appropriate IFR altitude for that area, and then started to communicate because people were you know, I was doing my best to keep up throughout the hoist evolutions and in between hoist sequences, trying to update the rescue coordination center. You know, I had known that a Cormorant was on standby in both Deer Lake and and the Meadowlands.

Pete: 18:28

And, you know, at that point, it was it was kinda like, hey. Let's EV, navigate, communicate. So fly the plane, make sure we're all safe. But, and once we got pointed in in appropriate direction for Deer Lake and we're starting to pick up, get to an altitude where we can get radio reception. We picked up an IFR clearance to Deer Lake for for the landing.

Pete: 18:49

At that point, you know, communicating with the rest of the world, started with the Herc. They were circling overhead, went out to RCC, and then, essentially just told everybody, we got everybody on board, on Route to Deer Lake Airport, and for them to send multiple ambulances to meet us there at the airport. And I and I think the first question was, wait. You have all 20 on board? And we're like, yep.

Pete: 19:18

Everybody's on board. We're en route to the airport. And you can just kinda hear, like, the relief and excitement and and just kinda, like not confusion, but it was just, like, how how how are there 20 people on the Cormorant plus the seven crew members, on board, and and how is this working? But, yeah, the en route seemed to you know, for a five just over five hour mission, the en route went to Deer Lake Airport was went by in a flash.

Bryan: 19:47

Yeah. I believe it. After all that busyness and hard work on station, that must have been well, I bet by that point, you guys must have been kind of exhausted.

Pete: 19:56

I I don't think the the adrenaline or like, I don't I don't think any of that had had kinda subsided. We were still kind of in go mode. And even when we're unloading the aircraft and there's there's a picture with with the the sailors from the Embassy Baltic and and some of the crew members in in kind of a what we use as a staging area at the airport. I think we're all still sort of processing, and and the crazy part was typically, you know, the the flight engineer and the pilots will stay on board the helicopter. The start techs will go off, do a do a handover with the paramedics or, you know, whether it's an ambulance or the hospital.

Pete: 20:35

And we don't necessarily see that part, and we don't necessarily interact with any of the survivors, very much after they leave the aircraft. But since we had shut down and and we're helping kinda bring people into the airport, we were all there and kinda witnessed. And, I will say it was pretty pretty incredible and pretty and and humbling all at the same time, seeing some of the sailors, like, on I don't know if it's social media or FaceTime or, WhatsApp, but, like, talking to clearly talking to family members back home and kinda recounting, you know, what happened. And they're kinda showing the crew, showing everybody who was off the boat and and, you know, couldn't understand what some some of what was being said. But, again, it was it was, you know, those moments that, it's kinda like, yeah, this this this is why we train.

Pete: 21:28

This is why we we do what we do is is is to ideally get to this moment where, you know, folks that, if they're if they had no possibility to get off that boat, you know, at that point, we we weren't sure what was gonna happen, or what could have happened. So, yeah, quite the experience for sure.

Bryan: 21:46

Greg, can you walk us through the handover at Deer Lake and what stands out from that moment for you?

Greg: 21:51

Yeah. Well, we had that second helicopter that was coming from Gander, they heard the radio call. I think, they were pretty close, and they heard the radio call that we had got everyone off the ship. So they headed to Deer Lake, landed there, and then they helped transfer. So they had organized stretchers and wheelchairs and everything.

Greg: 22:11

And they were so helpful. The three Sartex there plus the, the crew member, they just like get everyone off the helicopter safely, usher everyone into indoors to do all the handovers with the paramedics, get all the documentation. We took pictures of all their passports. So we had their names and their information. They helped do all that.

Greg: 22:28

So that was great. And like, like P saying, like we're very mission focused and I don't, for me, the mission doesn't, end until you get home safely. So even though that part is download those patients and those passengers was, was great. That's a good milestone, but, okay. Now we need to get gas, get re reset and we got to fly home through the, you know, the opposite direction.

Greg: 22:50

Luckily we had a tailwind. So it was nice, fast ride home, but got to get home and, and, reset and figure out what's next. And I mean, even that, I feel like this mission has dragged on quite a while because, I think I've done more emails, and talking about the mission than the time we spend in the hover. But, that's part of the the job I I want to represent for SAR and and, show what work we did and how how it affects, the outcome for 20 people. Like, that could have been just as easy a day of 20 people not going home to their family.

Greg: 23:22

So Yep. A great reward from the SAR point of view.

Pete: 23:26

Yeah. I I will say and, having that, second crew on the ground, you know, they're they're you really didn't have to say anything. They were ready to pretty much spring into action and and help where they could to to make that offload, that handover as efficient as possible. And that's always been a thing, with SAR community, whether you're on the East Coast or West Coast. They, you know, whether it's a SAR techs or the air crew, they're all alike.

Pete: 23:52

They're all there to get the job done and make sure everybody gets home safely. What Greg said was absolutely true. You know, we despite what had just happened, it wasn't a kinda like a a moment of celebration. It was like, okay. Let's clean up the helicopter, get the gear that we can reset, get reloaded, and and make our way home.

Pete: 24:13

And as it as it was, you know, because we started we're on standby that day, but we had home, reset the aircraft, reset our gear, and then everybody had to crew rest. And we were because our land extraction exercise was delayed by twenty four hours, you know, there there wasn't time to just kinda like, okay. Now I can go go to sleep and have have a nice lazy Sunday, to kinda catch up on on other things. It was, you know, right right back into deploying essentially the entire squadron to Deer Lake for for a week long exercise, gear included. And and, the one thing I I I would mention or I'd like to mention is, you know, despite having multiple assets, helicopters, three helicopters, a Herc, a Coast Guard vessel on scene, all kind of ready sprung loaded to assist as required.

Pete: 25:07

You know, the entire SAR enterprise doesn't operate with hundreds of people in the background. So, you know, the amount of background work that goes on at the Rescue Coordination Center alone is is absolutely amazing. And and being able to deliver us the critical and important pieces of information as they're trying to figure out what's happening with this mission and giving us exactly what we needed to to get out the door and and make the decisions we did is is quite phenomenal. So it's, you know, hats off to the Rescue Coordination Center for continuing to do, the amazing job that they do. And then everybody that supports the SAR organization, like everyone from our Orly Room staff right down to our squadron ops, our Outcast servicing folks, our IMP personnel servicing helicopters.

Pete: 25:55

I mean, you know, I said earlier earlier today, one of the one of the most important things is trust. And, you know, that's right there is is we have a 100% full trust in everything our our servicing folks do, all the other support aspects of our SARS squadron and wing there so that we can just focus on enjoying our jobs. And without that trust and support, we wouldn't be able to to do what we do.

Bryan: 26:23

Yeah. That's huge. Just like every community in the air force, everybody sees in the if you see it in the news or, you know, what do people tend to talk about? It's the job. It's the air crew getting out there and flying and kind of getting I don't say getting the glamour, but you know what I mean?

Bryan: 26:40

It's they're the thing that people see, but what they don't see is the hundreds and hundreds of people it takes to support those operations who are working, you know, they're on shift work, they're working weekends, they're doing all all this crazy stuff to make sure that this these operations can happen.

Pete: 26:54

Yeah. The yeah. That's for sure. And and and I briefed the squadron at one point. Our motto is not, seek recognition.

Pete: 27:00

It's seek and save, and that's it, full stop. And and quite often, you'll, you'll see, you know, this one being a little bit, more present in the news based on the conditions and the fact that we had so much footage, almost live at the time Mhmm. With all the videos and pictures on Facebook of the events kind of unfolding as, the rest of Canada and and at one point as the rest of the world kinda watched this, unfold, you know, there are hundreds, of SAR missions that happen out there that are that are extremely challenging, that are extremely dangerous, and they're conducted on a daily basis, with zero coverage, with zero recognition. So, yeah, it's to be a part of the SART community is is quite amazing.

Bryan: 27:48

One thing I wanna jump back to, you talked about this is kinda crazy to me. So within twenty four hours, you guys were back on your next exercise. You said it's a land hoist camp. Is that what you call it?

Pete: 28:00

Yeah. Land extraction exercise or Deer Lake X. It's a week long exercise where we have, essentially four or five different scenarios happening. A plane crash being one of them with, multiple casualties. It's a chance for our air crews to simulate that they've, conducted a forced landing in in the field somewhere and and build shelters and kinda work through their survival pattern with the assistance of, the Sartex section.

Pete: 28:26

It's the entire squadron out and about for for an entire week with scenarios that are as realistic as it gets to kinda train, as much as we can the way we fight. And, that plane crash scenario was, actually happened, very similarly in in real life last summer. So '24 in a very similar area. It's it's very nearby, Wild Cove there in the Blome Down Mountains where a plane had crashed, there are multiple, I believe there's four POB. And, the crew did exactly what we do during our winter survival or land extraction exercise where they land the helicopter.

Pete: 29:08

Everybody from the helicopter, including the flight engineer and one of the pilots will will get off the helicopter and actually assist with packaging and transporting the patient back to the helicopter. And that's something that they, they did last summer. So just another example of how we train to prepare for some of these missions.

Bryan: 29:27

That's crazy. One thing that just kind of blows my mind about this though is that you guys literally were just right back to work. So was there any kind of squadron, like recognition among among your peers or amongst yourselves even that what you guys had done was something pretty extraordinary or was it just sort of business as usual and off we go back to work?

Greg: 29:47

I tried to get some days off, the CEO wouldn't wouldn't push. So I had to get back to work. No. Come on, sir. Just let me rest.

Greg: 29:56

No.

Pete: 29:58

No. No. I mean, the recognition in in that, you know, took a moment to highlight to the unit, you know, this was an incredible mission, and and it couldn't have been it wouldn't have been accomplished without the hard work and dedication that, every every member of one zero three Squadron puts in twenty four seven. So there was that, but, I mean, we were right into the the week long exercise. And as much as he can, you know, when you get a chance to take a day off, you take it, because those even those days off are are never guaranteed.

Pete: 30:31

Just, you know, Greg could have been on on a a day of leave when the MSC Baltic was happening, and, you know, he he would have gotten the phone call, and the answer would have been the same thing. You know, grab the toothbrush, get in the truck, and and get to work. And that goes for, you know, any position, whether it's pilots or flight engineers. You know, their their time off is absolutely necessary and and mandatory. But, whenever possible, they're ready to to jump in and and, help out where they can.

Greg: 31:02

And in all honesty, we were prepared to fly back to Gander, get our equipment we needed for Deer Lake and fly back to Deer Lake. And we kind of assumed that was, you know, that was to us. That was what's going to happen. We're just going to go to Deer Lake and do the Deer Lake X. It's just going to start a couple hours late because, we were supposed to deploy that morning.

Greg: 31:19

I was like, you know, my alarm was set for 06:30 or whatever. I was going to get up right after that. And we were going to get in the car and drive to Deer Lake. So when we were there, we're like, oh man, we're here, but we don't have our gear. Like it would have been good to bring our gear, but we had no space because we needed the space for the people.

Greg: 31:32

Like did the other helicopter happen to bring our gear? Because then we don't have to go back home. So we were expected just to stay at Deer Lake. Then obviously, the CEO talked to the, OPI for the event and just say, we'll just push it a day, get everyone back home, make sure the helicopters are reset, all the equipment that we used. And it gives it just give up a quick pause for a day.

Greg: 31:52

Then it worked out really well as my daughter's birthday the next day. So I got to wake up at home with my kids, gave her a happy birthday hug and then got in the car and went to Deer Lake. And so it actually ended up was a benefit for me for all the, support we get from the families. Like Pete said, it takes a village and it takes all the families that support all those different, crews, people, the IMP, the, the, all the support of the base, every, everything that, and their families that support them. And so it was great to get that win for the family, for the group, for the team.

Greg: 32:24

I think one zero three as a whole, when we did that mission share, we're the crew that went out did it, but it's a, it's a win for the calf, for the air force, for 01/2003, for sure for SAR. So I think that's a, that's where the whole community benefits from events like this when a good outcome is it's fall through.

Pete: 32:43

Yeah. And if you think about, you know, whether it's, one individual that's saved on a mission or 20, if you think about the ripple effects down the road of, you know, one life saved and and and how many, not just that individual, but friends, family, how many lives that actually affects down the road is is is quite amazing. Like, maybe almost impossible to truly calculate what effect each star mission potentially has, on the community or or, you know, to a town or, you know, lucky seven mission, last year is is a good example of that where, you know, they were missing for fifty hours, in a life raft after their, boat caught on fire and sunk. And, once they were finally rescued, you know, it was not just the friends and family. It was it was the entire community.

Pete: 33:35

You know, pretty much all of Newfoundland was was cheering them on and, you know, another great example of of the SARS system working, and another reason why all the work that we put in now, makes a difference tomorrow.

Bryan: 33:50

Greg, you mentioned family support. Something I would imagine that was different about this mission, you know, normally you guys are taking risks all the time. Not taking risks, but flying in risky scenarios all the time. There's a certain element of danger that comes with the job. But normally I would imagine your families are kind of isolated from that.

Bryan: 34:09

In this case, there was so much coverage. There was live footage showing what you guys were doing. How do your families handle the stress or of seeing kind of the danger that you're facing?

Greg: 34:19

Well, my wife knows that I love what I do, I guess. So she's pretty happy. And she says, if, something happens to you at work, at least I know you're in a place with people that you want to be with doing the job you want to do and surrounded by a great group of people. So I think that's, the support from home is it's, it's, amazing and it's, it's easy to, makes it easy to do the job. I got a lot.

Greg: 34:41

She downloads a lot of, a lot of stuff for me. So when I'm at work, I'm at work. I don't have to worry about, are the kids going to be picked up from school? Is someone sick? I'll get home and my kid will be home from school.

Greg: 34:51

And what happened? Oh, he was sick. He threw up in his, in his classroom. So we, I had to go get him. She doesn't text me in the middle of the day and give me that, that, that information if I don't need it.

Greg: 34:59

So, she really supports me from like, to work, do your job, focus on your job. When you come home, download work and focus on home, which is probably the hardest part to, especially as you move up the ranks and to leadership here, you feel like you need to, always be able to look out for your people. My family extends into this architects that I got to look after and take care of, but yeah, she's really good at that. So I, I, I think without that, wouldn't I wouldn't be a Sartex. Probably wouldn't be the Sartex I am without her.

Greg: 35:27

How

Bryan: 35:29

about you, Pete?

Pete: 35:30

I say that would go the same. We we don't have kids. We have a couple dogs that are our fur babies, I guess, if you will. But same thing. When I'm at work, I I think the first couple of star missions, my wife would, back then, hear the pager go off, know that something was up, and then she wouldn't be able to sleep because she'd be worried all night.

Pete: 35:49

And then kinda once I, you know, ex explained how we do things and why we do it and what we're doing, you know, she's obviously still worries, but she can see the weather conditions. She can see she understands what we're flying in and and and what we do, based on the feedback and the stories that I tell her, but, has always been super supportive. And and if there's anything that she knows, you know, I know he's probably busy at this point, you know, she'll she'll do her best to to deal with it herself and then always kinda close that loop with me at the end. And, again, we're super fortunate. We have amazing friends, family, wherever we've been, Comox, Gander, Cape Cod, here in Ottawa, friends, family, neighbors, you know, much much like the the SARS system.

Pete: 36:38

They've always stepped in and and, oh, yeah, your husband's, away. No problem. You know, whether it's snow clearing or helping out, with with things that are completely out of out of, her control, it's been we've been fortunate. So, yeah, it's it's kinda like another mini SAR family, outside of SAR.

Bryan: 36:56

Awesome. So the crew later received an International Maritime Organization or IMO certificate of commendation for exceptional bravery at sea. What did that recognition mean to each of you?

Pete: 37:08

It was incredible. Just it's hard to describe. You know, Canada has been recognized in the past. I think the last time, the RCF or Canadians were recognized were in 2012 for a mission they did. This one highlighted the true team effort, required to accomplish this safely and effectively.

Pete: 37:29

You know, we were, of course, super proud and and, you know, felt privileged to be able to receive that. But truly, this the you know, that award kinda goes to the entire SAAR enterprise across the board because without, without them, these these feats wouldn't be, possible at all.

Greg: 37:52

Yeah. I'll just echo what Pete said. I think that I agree. It's a great honor to get recognized for that, but, it just happened to be me on the helicopter that day and anyone else would have got the same thing. I try to try to put it in perspective in that, you know, just doing my job.

Greg: 38:10

Just I was lucky that day or fortunate that day to be on the be called in and wasn't even part of the crew, but yeah, just show up to work, do your job, and that's all you gotta do.

Pete: 38:20

And I guess the one positive part about the, I guess, the exposure to, you know, the news picking up the the photos and the the video online helped identify to, fellow Canadians. Like, this this is what your RCF does. This is what, your SAR crews do daily. And while all conditions aren't aren't at the level, or aren't necessarily the same as the MSC Baltic, you know, your your SAR crews are are there ready to respond twenty four seven, and and this is, you know, this is not one of. This is something that they are practically doing every day.

Pete: 39:03

It just may or may not be as available to to watch or or see on the news.

Bryan: 39:09

Let's, close here with some final thoughts. What should Canadians understand about SAR that they often don't?

Pete: 39:16

There's a lot of preparation that happens in the background. There's a lot of work that goes into it daily. There's a lot of joint training that happens with other agencies. So it's not just RCAF. It's the Canadian Coast Guard, RCMP, local law enforcement, local medical professionals, other government departments.

Pete: 39:36

There's a SARS system is absolutely massive, and very, very complex. And, you know, one thing to you know, for the public to realize is if you're going out, whether it's just out on the boat, pleasure craft, or or going flying or or, you know, you're a fisherman 200 miles off offshore, just being prepared for the environment that you're that you're gonna face and and being prepared for, you know, the unfortunate or unplanned events is it goes a long way. But then also, like, trying to learn and understand how the SAR system works, you know, how to get help depending on where you're going will also go a long way, and it'll kinda reduce that that search time. And, you know, if you're in need of rescue, we'll kinda get that rescue to you sooner. So whether that's carrying around a PLB or an EPIRB if you're, offshore, knowing understanding how your ELT works if you're flying an aircraft.

Bryan: 40:36

A PLB is a personal locator beacon. An EPIRB is an emergency position indicating radio, and an ELT is an emergency locator transmitter. All three are types of four zero six megahertz distress beacons used for emergency rescue via satellites.

Pete: 40:53

Or, you know, new new cell phones these days have, you know, cell phone capability, text messaging, letting people know what your your itinerary is, and, you know, having a plan is is key because that that saves a lot of precious time, where ground SAR, RCMP, local law enforcement agencies, RCF, czar crews, we can all, if we need to be tasked, get tasked sooner than later and and, get on scene as as soon as possible. That's, that's super important.

Greg: 41:25

Well, I just want people to know that you guys are the customer. We work for you and we want to be able to give you the best service we can. We train for that. And if you are in need of assistance, early, don't hesitate. It doesn't cost you anything.

Greg: 41:40

Cruiser ready twenty fourseven, three sixty five to come, to the aid of Canadians as required. So the sooner you recognize you're in distress or you're putting yourself in a situation that you didn't expect, call somebody, make the phone call and try to get the system launched immediately. Because when we're racing the clock, every every second counts for sure.

Bryan: 42:02

What lessons would you want future Star Cruise to carry forward from the MSC Baltic Rescue?

Pete: 42:07

I'd say ask for help early. Bring extra people. Don't hesitate to bring extra people if you can. Sometimes it doesn't make sense if you're trying to trade to wait for fuel, but then sometimes it really does, and that extra fuel is not gonna matter when the extra hands can make all the difference or make or break kind of the potential success for your mission. Trust your team.

Pete: 42:30

You know? Learn your limits. Figure out what your what your arcs are and and learn to play within them and, keep striving for better. Keep learning. In this in the SAAR worlds, the minute you stop learning, I feel like something's wrong.

Pete: 42:45

You know, you should always be learning something new, finding ways to either better yourself or better, a process. And, I'd say the last thing is if you're not, if you're not having fun, you're doing something wrong.

Greg: 42:57

Yeah. We're limited in Trenton where I currently am now with the Griffin for fuel and weight. And I try to teach, people that trading equipment for a SAR tech is a great option. Bring a SAR tech, the extra SAR tech over the extra climbing equipment or the extra bag that you don't need your night, you know, your, your, your equipment for the, something that's not related to the mission at that time is, is a trade off that I'm willing to accept anytime. I'd rather have a, a Sartech over a bag of winter clothing, in most situations.

Greg: 43:35

We didn't think that was, that's not really a comrade problem normally because it's such a big helicopter, so much space, so much fuel. So this was an opportunity where we took to say, no, we need, we'd rather have the extra SAR tech than the extra gear. So get that gear that we don't think we'll need for this mission, that land equipment, this is going to be a Marine environment. And we do that, same in Trenton on the, on the Griffin. And we just really try to convince people that, a human being with a brain, two eyes and hands and ears, and can do all these things, all these capabilities, all these senses that they can, analyze what what's going wrong, what's going right with the mission, what the mission requires is much more valuable to me.

Greg: 44:15

We we can do this job with very minimal gear and many Sartecs and many aircrews have proven that over the years. So, yeah, train your people to work with minimal equipment in the conditions that mimic the environment we expect the mission in.

Bryan: 44:30

Alright. Okay, gents. That brings us to the end of this awesome story. Walking through the MSC Baltic Rescue with you guys has been eye opening and I think it'll give all of us a deeper appreciation for the skill, teamwork, and determination that brought 20 people home that day. I want to thank you guys for sharing the challenges and the lessons that you learned on this mission.

Bryan: 44:50

But I also want to thank you for the work you do. It's been a real privilege to have you on the show. So thank you guys so much.

Greg: 44:55

My pleasure.

Pete: 44:56

Thank you so much.

Bryan: 44:57

Alright. Fly safe.

Pete: 44:58

Rescue. Rescue.

Bryan: 45:00

Alright. That wraps up our three part series on the amazing story of the MSC Baltic three rescue. Tune in next week to learn all about the seed corn program and hear about how the RCAF is getting ready for all the new aircraft they'll soon be flying. Do you have any questions or comments about anything you've heard in this show? Would you or someone you know make a great guest, or do you have a great idea for a show?

Bryan: 45:21

You can reach out to us at the [e-mail] or on all social media at at pod pilot project. And be sure to check out that social media for lots of great videos of our RCAF and Mission Aviation aircraft. As always, we'd like to thank you for tuning in and ask for your help with the big three. That's like and follow us on social media, share with your friends, and follow and rate us five stars wherever you get your podcasts. That's all for now.

Bryan: 45:46

Thanks for listening. Keep the blue side up. See you. Engineer, shut down all four. Shutting down all four engines.