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The Pilot Project Podcast is an aviation podcast that aims to help new pilots learn what it takes to succeed in the world of flight, to help people in the flight training system learn what they may want to fly, and to give Canadians and the world a peek into life on the flight deck in the RCAF. We want to help pilots succeed and thrive! We interview real RCAF pilots for their exciting stories as well as the lessons they've learned along the way. We'll learn their tips to develop resilience and the tools it takes to make it in flight training.
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Bryan: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 for our series on 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, thanks so much for being back here on the show today.
Bryan:Thanks for
Greg:having us. Yeah. Thanks for having me.
Bryan:Listeners can check out part one of our chat to hear about Pete and Greg's path to joining the RCAF, some of their training and operational experiences and what led them to eventually take part in the MSC Baltic three Rescue. Today for part two, we're going to talk about the rescue itself. So before we start, let's, kind of tell the story from the high end perspective. So the stage is set for one of the most dramatic SAR rescues in Canadian history. It's the morning of 02/15/2025 and early in the morning, the Marine communications and traffic services center in Channel Port Au Basque receives a mayday from a cargo ship.
Bryan:It's about 12 nautical miles off the entrance to the Bay Of Islands and the ship has reported a loss of power. The ship, the MSC Baltic three, is in a raging winter storm off Newfoundland's coast. Winds are hitting a 120 kilometers per hour. Waves are slamming the vessel towards the rocks at Wild Cove and 20 crew members, including several injured, are trapped on board. Rescue nine zero one is scrambled into the storm with a seven person crew racing the clock as the ship drifts uncontrollably towards shore.
Bryan:Today, we're going to walk through that mission minute by minute. How does that sound to you guys to hear that described from like a storytelling perspective? Does that feel crazy that you were part of that?
Pete:Every once in a while, we're just kind of like, yeah, that that that happened. But, yeah, I don't think the story will ever kinda get old in my head. Like, it's it was just a awesome experience to be a part of and, you know, obviously, a successful outcome that made it that much that much better.
Greg:It pumps me up, man. Your intro is awesome when you say racing the clock. I never really put it in perspective like that. So you say that and it's like, actually, you know, you know, we were all in a rush, but to actually be racing the clock is is quite a good description of what what we were doing.
Bryan:Yeah. Yeah. So walk us through the exact moment the call came in. What information were each of you given?
Pete:So on that morning, the I guess the initial May Day went out at about 05:08 local time in the morning. And at 05:23, we were the Cormorant crew was tasked. So the initial reports were that we had several injuries. At one point, it was three, and then it we were told, possibly five, people were injured. We were told the MSC Baltic had lost power, was drifting rapidly towards shore.
Pete:There were also 20 people total on board. And, the vessel started about nine nautical miles away offshore, and it very quickly became clear that that strong northwesterly wind was pushing it towards land much faster than expected. Yeah. And then as we were getting airborne, you know, we were getting updates. And as we're you know, we knew the weather wasn't gonna be great before going to bed as we were actually due to deploy for our Deer Lake gland extraction exercise that same morning, but we didn't realize how how extreme some of the conditions would be.
Pete:So, yeah, right from the start time, as you as you say, it was it was, definitely a factor.
Bryan:Greg, did you guys have basically the same information on the Artec side?
Greg:A little bit different. So I wasn't actually on the on the original crew. I was so it was a different team leader, a different team member were on the crew. So they went in and got the information. They got the phone call, they got to work.
Greg:They started loading the helicopter and got more information. And as, as they got more information, they realized they needed more, more star techs and the two of them weren't going to cut it. So they had a, we had a Sartex from Comox that was out doing his OJTS. So it was on job training with us because they, had lots of people in Comox and we didn't have anyone to train at that moment. So they sent him out for two weeks with us.
Greg:He'd already been there a week. And, so, Skirboy Gogaine was there helping out. And so he was automatically a third, a third person on the crew as a Sarczyk. And then they called me in as a fourth. So I got the call around, I don't know, six, 6AM, which is perfect time to get a call.
Greg:Grabbed my toothbrush, jumped in my truck and headed into work with very little information. As soon as I showed up and I got the brief of what was going on, same like Pete said, we didn't know three, four, five injured 20 on board drifting to shore, lost power. At that point we had not known, that it had contacted the shore and had not contacted the shoreline yet. And so we just started loading the helicopter up. I was still in like dressed in my cities.
Greg:I didn't put my uniform on yet. Was still trying to get everything scrambled and get all the bags and everything prepped. And then, we were getting gas at the same time and starting to spark up the engines and get going.
Bryan:So Greg, when you hear a power loss, drifting 20 crew, multiple injuries, what goes through your mind?
Greg:Right away. I thought, you know, to went back to like a medical triage of what we're going to have to, how we're going to triage these people, how we're going to get them off the boat, obviously, with a hoist requirement on the, on the vessel, we're not going to be able to just land and load them on the helicopter. Like you could, a plane crash or something that's on the, on the land. So we knew that that was going to be a factor. So we brought extra equipment for that right away.
Greg:And then we started looking at our travel time, how much time we had to prep and what we needed to prep for on route. Deer Lake is a common airport that we try train in Newfoundland. So our transit from Gander Deer Lake is a pretty normal thing for us. We'll fly over to Deer Lake and then break out in the clouds there or find better weather. Then go do some star training for the day.
Greg:Stop, get gas, get lunch, do training on the way home back to Gander. So it was a known location and a route that we had many times traveled. So we kind of thought we knew what to expect it. And then the weather was telling us otherwise that the travel would take much longer than anticipated.
Bryan:Yeah. So on the topic of the weather, Pete, what did you understand about the weather system moving through Newfoundland that morning?
Pete:Yeah. It we knew it was a strong winter system. You know, sustained winds were 45, 50 knots, gusting to 60. 800 foot ceiling, which wasn't too too bad in terms of low ceilings, but visibility wasn't great. But there were significant there were warnings for significant turbulence or severe turbulence, throughout the region, which was, of concern, but the coroner is is very, very capable.
Pete:And and, you know, it it wasn't something that was gonna prevent us from from getting there, but, just how long it would take to get there, quickly became apparent. So just for context, a normal transit from Gander to Deer Lake would take, you know, anywhere from forty five minutes to an hour ish depending on the winds, you know, to get to where the MSC Baltic was, maybe an hour to an hour fifteen ish. But that day, it took us over two hours, to to get on scene, and that was pretty much flying as fast as we could. And for a lot of it, we had to disengage autopilots, because they were just not, quick enough to react to some of the gusts and and some of the power changes required to kind of maintain as fast as, transit as possible.
Bryan:So two hours of flying with the wind in your face manually in difficult conditions?
Pete:Yeah. That's that's basically what it boiled down to. We left at 06:35 in the morning. And, you know, we we did the quick calculation knowing that it would take well over an hour. But, you know, as soon as we got airborne and started really realizing that that 25 knot headwind turned into a 50 knot headwind, you know, at that point, we were trying to manage, you know, our any async kit, you know, whether we needed to have it on, or if we could turn it off.
Pete:We were playing with different altitudes to find the best overall ground speed. And at one point, we essentially, you know, for any transit, whether it's training or SAR, we work very closely with Gander Center, and, we basically just requested a a block of airspace, from, 3,000 to 10,000 so we could, hunt for the, lightest winds, which weren't weren't too different regardless of altitude. But then, you know, at one point, just being above the cloud layer helped us in terms of power available. We were able to turn off, all of our engine intake NEI systems so we could, you know, squeeze a couple extra knots out of our our ground speed and and get there as quick as as we could.
Bryan:With this winter storm warning and the 120 kilometer hour winds, which is you mentioned 50 knots, how does that shape the conditions you expect to encounter when you get there?
Pete:Yeah. Like, the the wind speed being, being one thing, but the the biggest concern was how the wind would interact with either the the structure of the vessel, if it came to a hoist, out in open water and how you know, whether the StarTek would start swinging and and the the associated challenges with dealing with you know, now you have a a large vessel, but, a vessel that's dead in the water in the heavy sea state, you know, it it it can be a little unpredictable. By the time we got on scene and and realizing that the the vessel had just run aground, at that point, our concern shifted to a little less about how the vessel was moving even though it was still moving quite a bit. And our our big concern ended up being how the the significant winds on our nose interacted with the cliff face behind us and how it would affect the the aircraft when it either, you know, hit us from underneath or it seemed to occasionally cross from left to right behind us and hit our tail translated to pretty much a, feeling of flying through, TL, translation and lift, is kinda what it felt like.
Pete:But it was just the more extreme version of that for pretty much the full sixty minute, hoist evolution. The entire helicopter shook to the point where, you know, if you're quickly trying to look at, the dash or one of our our nav displays, you know, that it it was, shaking violently the entire time. So it, I remember being on scene within the first, couple minutes in order to adequately maneuver into into position. We came to a a high hover, in front and to the left of our our hoist position, and we essentially essentially hover taxied, back down and right, into what ended up being the hoist position, which was captured on on a couple videos from the ground there. But, you know, at at that point, it was doing everything we can to make sure the crew felt, you know, they were we were in a safe position.
Pete:At one point, we did mention, like, the the aircraft is shaking quite a bit. Is everything good? And then he was like, yeah. Everything looks like it's good to go. That's just from the the the turbulence and the winds that we were dealing with.
Pete:Wow. So we we quickly went through our checks and and continued with the the rest of the hoist sequences.
Bryan:It speaks a lot for the Cormorant and what a capable aircraft it is that you folks are able to take it out in these kind of like insane conditions. Like that level of turbulence, that level of vibration, the just the conditions of that day, like, it's pretty impressive.
Pete:Absolutely. Like, having you know, I haven't had a a ton of SAR experience on other platforms. But having flown the MH 60 t and then comparing it to the conditions we flew in that day, MH 60 is is a very, very capable helicopter. But I would have, if I had a choice, you know, out of the barn which one which one I wanted I'd I'd take on a siren mission like that one, it would have been the Cormorant, Hensdale.
Bryan:Wow. Greg, we've gone through this a little bit, but can you explain the crew composition of that day?
Greg:Yeah. So we got the aircraft commander, which was captain Matt Cox, and then the HP right there was in FO position. We had, Todd Osman as the flight engineer, and then we had the four star techs. So we had Gary Normore, Sebastian Gaudet, Alain Gauguin from four four two, and then myself.
Bryan:Right. And as we said, before, normally you would have two, I believe, on a standard crew, but you guys had that four that day because you knew how many, potential patients there were on the ship.
Greg:Yeah. I normally fly team leader, team member. And then that day we flew two team leaders, a team member. So Gary Normal was team member and then Gauguin was the third man. So he's a untrained team member.
Greg:Okay. Working to become a team member.
Bryan:So what's happening for each of you mentally as you prepare for the flight? I know we've kind of talked our way a little bit into actually arriving, but as you're getting ready for the flight, what's going through your mind?
Greg:Well, like I said, I jumped out of bed at six, five after six. I think they called me and grabbed my toothbrush. I'm about five, ten minutes to work. So by the time I got to work, was like 06:15. We were wheels up by 06:35, I think Pete said.
Greg:So, I didn't have a lot of time. Like I was still in, I threw all my gear on for the water, for the dry suit, for the hoisting over, over the boat. And then I, still, like I said, I was still in my, my boots and my, my pants that I had drove in with. So I changed, I didn't have my uniform even on. Would have to go normally load and then go back inside, change to my uniform and then on route, we can change it to our, our water stuff.
Greg:Cause it's a bit of a transit. Have over half an hour transit. We can change in the back of the helicopter. So normally we'll leave in dry clothes and then change into the wet clothes requirement as we go. So I didn't have time even to change in my uniform.
Greg:I just went with my, like rubber boots on and my sweat pants and my t shirt and my hoodie and, started to get, get moving. So there was, like you said, racing against the clock, there was no time to do much, but throw our gear on, make sure we had the couple extra things that we thought we would need and then, get, buttoned up so we can get moving.
Bryan:Did you end up getting dressed, on the helicopter? Or
Greg:Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. We all all the guys in the back usually get dressed, en route. The pilots will change depending on what the training or what the mission is.
Greg:The pilots can come back and change. But, I think that day, I'm I'm gonna guess soon Pete was already dressed up and he had no bandwidth to come back and change. Plus in the back, that helicopter was so, turbulent. We you know, it was difficult to get changed, so you wouldn't wanna be have to negotiate that cockpit, the new exit maneuver that they do.
Bryan:Fair enough.
Pete:Yeah. When I came in in the morning, it you know, rather than changing into a flight suit and then doing another change, you know, we we we knew what the environment was gonna be like when we got on scene, and we knew it would be over water, and the conditions were, I think, somewhat hostile. So it, like, it it was it was a no brainer, you know, get to work. I will say, like, every SAR day pretty much starts kind of the same for everybody. You know, you show up, you load your gear, you get changed, debriefed, and then you go flying.
Pete:And, you know, for a star mission, it's not that much different. You know, a little less time for chitchat, but, you you show up, you load the gear, you change if if required or depending on on on what you're doing, you brief and you go. And that's exactly what happened that morning. The only difference that morning, which would have delayed us a a few minutes, would have been, filling up to the maximum amount of fuel we could we could take on board. So just over 4,000 kilos, you know, we took all the gas we could possibly take, because we knew that the with the headwinds going there, it would, require a bit of fuel and just to give us all of the options available to, you know, if our alternate if if our if Deer Lake ended up not being a a successful area for an approach, you know, with the information that we got, and you can only go with, make the best decision with the information you have at the time.
Pete:Our initial plan was to remove up to five people that were injured, bring them to the hospital in Corner Brook, via kinda like a low level VFR route, and then, come back and and, hoist the remaining people off the boat. And and, you know, it's quite obvious that that plan evolved and turned into turned into what happened. Yeah.
Bryan:So we've heard about the transit from Pete's point of view. We talked about that kind of the challenge of flying by hand through some really difficult conditions in terms of headwinds and turbulence. Greg, what was the transit like for you guys in the back?
Greg:Yeah. In the back, we just kind of tried to get our all our equipment together to make sure we didn't leave anything behind or that we knew how we were going to work the processes throughout. So we knew we'd have to hoist multiple people on different pieces of equipment. So we'd be using a Stokes, stretcher. It's a stretcher you can lay in and then that goes up and down on the cable.
Greg:And that's how we bring patients that can't sit up or walk into the helicopter. And then the basket somewhat something that we can use for equipment or for individuals that can, can walk and stand up. And then we have the horse collar rescue collar that we use to double people up. So we had a couple extra pieces of gear. We grabbed some extra collars.
Greg:We grabbed an extra, like a spine board so we could lift people and move them in and out of the stokes as, as required. So we kind of went on to a private channel so the Sarntex can just talk. So we're not disturbing the pilots as they're trying to fly and navigate the situation. So we just started talking in the back about plan A, B, C, who's going to do what role and when we get there and how we're going to, kind of attack this. And then we had, Sebastian Gaudet had the tracker up, the Marine tracker.
Greg:So pulls it up on his phone and you can see, and you can scroll back kind of like a weather app and see when the boat lost power. Well, what we assumed was when the boat lost power, it was in the water and then you see it just drift, freely towards the shore on the tracker. So we kind of had a pretty good estimate that it was going to be at the shoreline by the time we got there and what cove it's most likely going to be in as long as this tracker is accurate. So we talked about our triage and how we're, who's going to take what equipment down and how we're going to operate and work the, the space. And then we kind of talked to the front end again and see how they're doing and what's going on.
Greg:Like I said, pretty violent in the back, the helicopter shaking with turbulence more than, any other flight I'd had been on. So we were just making sure that everything was good from their end. And, I talked to, Pete with being the CEO and with my previous knowledge of Atlantic destiny, knowing the complications they had. I talked to him about bringing a second crew in and getting the second crew at a gander, ready to go. And then he said, yeah, can you take care of that?
Greg:I'm, I'm super busy up here flying this, This helicopter bouncing around the sky. So I downloaded that to me and I started texting with the other aircraft commander, which ended up being, Matt Neri, which is the current CEO. And then, Johnny Wall, which is the current STL. So like they both kind of took mine and Pete jobs. So it was great for Pete and I to be on the same page on the helicopter and download that to those guys.
Greg:And they got a second machine running and they were shortly behind us, in case we needed their assistance. And, they ended up meeting us in Deer Lake because they were, very close by the time we finished, all our sequences and they brought three Sartex with them. So they opted for a second, sorry, a third Sartex as well. So they run a crew too and grabbed an extra guy.
Bryan:Right on. So there's a lot happening as you transit, Yeah.
Greg:A few things.
Pete:Yeah. Yeah. There's and just to clarify, through the transit, when I say flying without autopilots, we weren't able to fly with any sort of altitude holds just because, you know, between the gusts and and, the conditions we were dealing with, you know, we had to we could have a an airspeed indicated airspeed holds, engaged, but then we were pretty much trying to just maximize, how quickly we can get from point a to point b, with with the conditions we had, with or without any ice kit on. So that was that. And then in terms of, other assets, yeah, a second helicopter from one zero three Squadron was tasked with the full crew, but four thirteen Squadron was also tasked.
Pete:So they showed up with a c one thirty h model Hercules. And they were I can't remember exactly what time they were on scene, but I do remember trying to chat with them on the radios at one point to give updates throughout since our plan had changed several times throughout. And then also found out that a Cormorant from Greenwood was also tasked and had landed in the, Ile De Metteland, the Metteland Islands, and they were kinda standing by to, tag in if required.
Bryan:Wow. So a lot of assets tasked that day.
Pete:Definitely. And and I I will also mention the, I believe it was the Henry Larson, the Canadian Coast Guard vessel was, offshore, and they were the first that we contacted as soon as we broke through the clouds at 800 feet. We saw them pretty much right below us, after our our instrument approach our company approach down to, the water level. And, we had asked them if they had seen the MSC Baltic, and they they said no. But you can clearly see they were just battling the waves Yeah.
Pete:Getting, smashed with every, wave they hit. So we quickly panned, to the left. We had our DF, needle up and pointing directly off over the shoreline.
Bryan:A DF needle is a direction finding needle and it's basically an instrument that can home in on a radio frequency and point to it.
Pete:The, marine tracker that, the gents had up in the back and and everything pointed towards the shore. Funny enough, you know, for a 207 meter container ship, we didn't see it immediately, because the shoreline was just all white, you know, either covered with snow or the waves hitting the shoreline. And and, you know, just it was quite the initial snapshot of, okay. This is it's here. Haven't found it yet.
Pete:And then a couple seconds later, it was like, oh, yep. We're starting to pick up the red, the reddish colors on the, the cranes that were on the on the vessel there. And very quickly, kinda gave you a that mental image, like, wow. Like, for us to not be able to immediately spot a 207 meter long ship against the shoreline, just based purely on on the conditions of the day. It was it kinda yeah.
Pete:For all of us, was like, okay. That's this is this is a little more aggressive than what we imagined, but, you know, time time to get to work.
Greg:Yeah. And and they had a blackout on the ship. Right? So they had no power, no communications. So we didn't have a report that they had run aground.
Greg:We were just looking for a boat in the water that lost power. So we're kinda, you know, used to us for a lot of our boat missions. The boats are in in the ocean. They're in the water. They're not on the shoreline.
Greg:So to see it up against the shore kind of blends in or, you know, unnatural, something we weren't expecting. It's like, oh, that's the boat. Okay. That's on the shore now. It's it's actually smashed into the rocks.
Greg:Wow. This can be a little different than what we had planned. The boat was dead in the water, no power drifting ashore and hoisting to that. Now this boat is stuck up against the shore. Is it gonna tip?
Greg:Is it gonna break? What's gonna happen here? What's the next action that the boat what's what's mother nature gonna do to us next? What do we have to be ready for here, and how are we gonna affect? I think that was when we had the previous plan.
Greg:Before we got on scene, we had talked about our our plan a, and c, and to take just the injured people off. Right. To get the four guys off that are injured, depending how badly they're injured, get them to the hospital, get them to definitive care, better treatment. And we can come back, gas up, come back. We've got other helicopters in the area that are willing to support.
Greg:So, that was the initial plan. And then when we saw it against the shore, I think everyone realized really quickly. We've got the capability, the gas and the ability to get all these crew members off. We need to make that happen because, there's boat so unpredictable. We can't leave, anyone behind.
Greg:I'm glad that happened because I feel like, if the helicopter would have had to depart to the hospital, I would have been staying on the boat with the casualties until the next helicopter showed up. So maybe not such a fun, a fun experience, but
Bryan:No kidding. So at what moment did you both realize that this mission was not going to be routine? Like, when's the big moment that hit you? Was that during the planning phase or did it take actually seeing the ship?
Pete:I I think it was fairly early on in the planning phase, to be honest. But I think it was the magnitude of of, how hostile some of those conditions would end up actually end up being for us in the hover, and also not expecting to be right up against the shoreline. You know, it's just kinda as you're taking in the new info, you're kinda like, okay. New plan. We're gonna hoist here until we hit our bingo fuel, which is, you know, the the the least amount of fuel with a, a small reserve for us to get back to the nearest airport or or point of land.
Pete:And, yeah, it's you know, I I I don't think any of us were quite prepared for, like, the the extreme variations in aircraft attitudes that we experienced that day. I mean, we had pitch changes at times. And and if if you look at some of the videos online, and thankfully, the folks onshore were able to capture some of those moments, You know, we had pitch changes of plus plus and minus 10 degrees.
Bryan:Which is a lot for listeners.
Pete:Which is which is
Bryan:That's that's very significant.
Pete:It is very, very significant. And most of that was was simply just to to deal with the gusts and and and the the unpredictable wind changes and and basically create as stable of a platform as possible. The flight engineer can hoist the Sarntex down without having us drift, you know, forward, backwards, left, or right. But, yeah, fifteen years of plus minus 10 degrees. The winds were predominantly hitting us from the left, so we we had significant left wing low at times, noted a couple times as far as eight degrees left wing low.
Pete:And a couple times, we had yaw deviations plus or minus 25, almost 30 degrees
Greg:Wow.
Pete:Both left and right. So all of that was, you know, as my task switched from flying pilot to get on scene, to non flying pilot since, captain Cox Matt Cox was in the right seat and obviously has a better vantage point for the for the hoisting. You know, it was my job to assist him and kinda coach him through as required, and and he did an absolute phenomenal job adjusting and adapting to those, required attitude changes just to kinda stay in the general area over top of boat. I mean, you're not gonna stay rock solid the whole time, but, the inputs he made, in any other circumstance would have been too extreme and and probably would have ended up hurting somebody. And on that day, it was absolutely what was necessary to keep us, over top.
Pete:Wow.
Greg:Yeah. For me, it's a a couple gates. Right? Like 20 people right away. Boom.
Greg:Okay. That's that's abnormal. Right? We go out to the the ocean and grab one or two people off a boat. You know, a fishing vessel, one guy gets hurt.
Greg:It's not Yeah. Rare for six or seven people on the on the fishing crew to be heard. We've had it in the past, know, boats sink and everyone ends up in a life raft, stuff like that. But yeah, for us common, mission would, or training, even when we train, we don't train to hoist 20 people off the ground or off the boat. It's rare that we have, you know, six, seven people on the ground in a training event.
Greg:And then in a mission, it's usually one or two people injured and, you know, there's lots of moving parts still, and you're doing multiple hoists. And then a day we can do, you know, six, seven, eight hoists for training, but, knowing we'd be doing twenty, twenty seven hoist, 28 hoist that day. It's a. Yeah, that's right away. 20.
Greg:Okay. And then we get in the helicopters bouncing all over the place. We got to try to find, get out the icing, get above the clouds. Okay. Another batch, but that's abnormal that we don't normally make sure we fly in bad conditions, but, this was above and beyond for the conditions.
Greg:Was shaking more than, ever before, more violent than before. And then getting to the boat and see it against the shoreline. Okay. That's another thing that's abnormal. Like normally hoist to land for a land mission or to the water for a water mission to a boat or to a, person in the water or PIW.
Greg:To a boat that's hitting the shore, being struck by waves and smashing on the rocks. That's kind of those, those benchmarks I found words. Okay, that's a little bit different. That's a little bit different. That's a little bit different, but at the end of the day, I mean, the helicopters flying, hovering over the deck and the position that we've recce picked and talked about, and we're hoisting the cable up and down as many times as we need to until everyone and everything is off, off the ground or off the boat that we need.
Greg:We do that on a regular basis. So that was the normal part. And that's where our training come in. We had all the briefs done before we got there. Everyone knew their roles and responsibilities.
Greg:And then all we had to do is adapt to those small conditions as they changed.
Bryan:Okay. For each of you, when you first broke through the clouds and finally found and saw the grounded vessel, like what's your reaction when you see this big ship on the rocks?
Pete:I think the initial reaction was holy cow. I think that's it's already on the rocks. And and, for such a big vessel, you know, it still took us a couple seconds to to, like, visually locate DAP. It was just kinda like, alright. Here we go.
Pete:Let's get her done. There there wasn't much hesitation or kinda like, don't know what to do here. It was it was just, okay. Wow. That's that's that's aggressive.
Pete:Let's, let's find the safest way in there and and, and make this happen.
Greg:Like Pete said, the initial plan was to take the injured people off. And, when we saw the boat on the head run aground, I pulled my ear cuff off to, and looked at the team member and said, we're, we're get we're taking everybody off. We're not leaving anyone on that boat. And he's, we all shook our heads, and we knew in the back, as long as we had the gas to do it, we, we're gonna get everyone off. That's the seem to be the the most important thing right now is to make make sure that nobody gets, ends up in the ocean because that's gonna be a death sentence because, the cold, the waves, the rocks is dead.
Greg:It was deadly at that point. And leaving them on the boat with the unpredictability of how the boat would, how stable the boat would be. Not, not knowing now that it's been stable for, you know, there'll be almost a year coming up here soon that it's still sitting where it's sitting. So, But yeah, we wanted to get everyone off. We said, no, don't let's not leave anyone behind if we can avoid it.
Greg:So I think that was where we said, okay, let's it's time to get to time to get to work. Yeah. This is what we signed up for. Let's go.
Pete:And I think Greg can can better describe, like, the conditions actually on the vessel, but, the other thought that went through our heads up front at least was that, you know, we made our approach in. We, you know, assessed where we're gonna hoist to. We've been in the area. By the time we did, we got the fourth injured person off the vessel. You know, we we had kinda worked out our kinks.
Pete:The flying pilot had, acquired, you know, solid references and and had gotten to the point where he was starting to feel a little more comfortable with managing, you know, the vibrations, the the extreme latitude changes, and making those hoists as quick and efficient as possible. And at that point, it, you know, it wouldn't make sense for us to stop short, providing that we hadn't, any fuel left over to have another new crew, 100% capable of getting the job done, but to come in and go through that entire initial assessment phase and, you know, the recce, figure out where they're gonna hoist, figure out what works for them. You know, we're already there. So as we're you know, the fourth, fifth, sixth person was coming on board, it quickly realized that front was like, okay. We'll just and then just gotta calculate the numbers, see what our all up weight, is currently, what it's gonna be at the end of the hoist, and try and, like, keep you know, we have an aircraft on standby in Deer Lake.
Pete:We have an aircraft, another helicopter on standby in, the Meadowlands Islands. We got a Herc circling above. We'd we have RCC Halifax on this hat phone.
Bryan:RCC Halifax is Rescue Coordination Center Halifax.
Pete:That we're checking in and giving updates and and, you know, we're kinda like, okay. Change of plans. We're not going to the hospital in Corner Brook. We're gonna go to Deer Lake. The weather in Corner Brook is an eighth of a mile in in heavy snow, and and, you know, it doesn't make sense for us to leave now, and leave people on board, and it doesn't make sense for us to to get to Corner Brook, in the next little bit.
Pete:So we're gonna keep hoisting until we hit bingo fuel and and and have to depart. And if anybody's left over at that point, then, then, obviously, it'll have to be another aircraft. So we had to coordinate very, very closely to ensure that, you know, the least amount of time was lost in in, you know, if we had to depart, and there were still, additional people left on that vessel. But, as as we had it that day, based on the conditions, the winds, the temperatures, you know, we're taking on the sailors. So the weight of the people at the same rate were burning fuel that day and, you know, never really never exceeded our all up weight.
Pete:And and we had a power margin that worked for for the conditions that day. You know, if it was in the middle of summer, 30 degrees out with less wind, that would have been a very different mission.
Greg:And I talked with the other Sartex as well, we, you know, stick by we don't believe that having the four Sartex was a huge factor in that. If we would have just gone with three, two for sure would have been a massive change, but just three Sartex alone, I don't think we would have ran as smoothly and it wouldn't have been as easy to coordinate, the extraction, which would have delayed and maybe not been able to take everyone due to that time constraints by having three of us on the deck of the boat and one up top in the helicopter with the flight engineer. We were able to kind of get an assembly line going and get, we needed those people on the deck to get the passengers pack that were injured packaged up properly and move them to the extraction spot on the deck. We we needed the other star tech to hold the line, like the guideline that we used to bring the hook back to us and send the control, the spin of the equipment going back to the helicopter. So all those factors, and the star tech up top with the flight engineer, flight engineers up by himself, trying to manage this, move this around, we just delayed everything.
Greg:And that probably would have got to our fuel in a critical state where we wouldn't be able to take everyone. So although the factor to bring the extra Sartex was a huge advantage to make our time the race against the clock, we were we had four people racing, not just two.
Bryan:Yeah. Let's wind the tape back a little bit and talk about your arrival. You, Pete, did what you call a company let down from 6,000 feet to 150 feet above the water level. Can you kind of explain what that is and what made this so challenging?
Pete:Yeah. So at, that location, we're in uncontrolled airspace. So I've heard on on one of your other podcasts, due regard. So very similar kind of thing. You know, we're we are going to assume our own risk for terrain clearance.
Pete:We're using our radar. We're not starting our approach. We're not descending out of, 6,000 feet until we are clear of of the terrain. And once out over the water, since we had such a stiff headwind, you know, that descent was pretty much as vertical as you can get, safely and, using our radar to, hopefully paint the vessel, which we were we were picking up the Henry Larson on the radar, but no other obstacles in front of us. And, yeah, essentially continued that approach until until we broke out at 800 feet.
Pete:It's something that we practice routinely, in a lot of different conditions. And and quite often, if you've, watched some of Matt Neri's other videos, you know, approaches will be conducted to to some pretty low visibility, you know, off offshore over the water. So it, it's something we we practice routinely, and and, it's it was the only tool that would have gotten us from 6,000 feet to down to the water level.
Bryan:Okay. So once you arrive on scene and break through the clouds, what happens next?
Pete:It was a quick race to figure out where the vessel was. So we, as I said, we had the Henry Larson painted on the radar. We had them up on channel 16 as well. So we reached out to them. They weren't aware of the location, and they hadn't talked to, the MSC Baltic at all over the radio, obviously, since The Baltic was, without power.
Pete:So, you know, our our secondary from there was the last known position was given to us, prior to departure from Gander, which was approximately four to five miles offshore at that point. So we knew that any, possibility to find the vessel would be inside of that, up to the shoreline. And then, you know, combine that with our DF needle and and, the marine tracker, we're quickly able to take basically use all the tools to say, I am a 100% sure the boat is in this direction. And once all arise, we're we're there. It just took us a couple minutes to figure out, what we were looking at.
Pete:And then kinda descend down to, I think we were down at around three, four hundred feet over the water to transit towards the shoreline. And then, with the winds at our tail, even at 60 knots, we were still moving, you know, 120, 130 knots over the ground. Wow. So quickly had to, make a first pass to take a quick look at the area, and then the second pass was to basically move the maneuver the helicopter forward and left of our ultimate hoisting position and and kinda back the helicopter back and right into position so we can start the hoist evolution at that point.
Bryan:Okay. We've talked about what made the hover so challenging that day. We've talked about some of the deviations they were working with. How busy was the non flying pilot role that day?
Pete:I I can definitely say I I don't think I've ever talked so much, as a nonflying pilot, whether it was a training mission or a star mission. It it was nonstop. From the minute we passed controls to Matt Cox, we isolated him from the radio so he didn't have to have, you know, the chatter and the comms over the radios distract him from what he needs to focus on, because he had a pretty, obviously, pretty busy job as well trying to maintain a stable platform. And, you know, the the initial after the initial assessments were complete and the first start techs were down, it was nonstop communication between Greg Hudson and myself, you know, giving, you know, huge radio up and and tell me what the next sequence either needed to be or what the next sequence was going to be so I can coordinate with the flight engineer and and give him a heads up. That way, he was prepared for exactly what was gonna happen.
Pete:And that saved, you know, at the time, minutes. But when you're multiplying that by 20 plus individual hoist, it those minutes definitely add
Greg:up. Mhmm.
Pete:So, yeah, it was nonstop comes between Greg and myself. And then also, you know, my job to kinda listen into, the flying pilot, Matt, and the flight engineer to make sure I have a complete picture of what's, what they're doing, what's happening on the helicopter. You know, I'm monitoring, pressures and temperatures up front. I'm managing the fuel, which, you know, for a ten, fifteen minute hoist, not a big deal. But for an hour long hoist, you know, it can definitely make a difference.
Pete:And then continuing all those calculations. So, you know, as the flying pilot, he could just purely focus on on flying, which was already a challenge. Right?
Bryan:Mhmm.
Pete:It, you know, at that point, I was and I think Matt Cox may have said it once himself. You know, super happy that I had previous, flying experience, and and, you know, it wasn't a a new first officer from the OTF at a COMOX in, on standby that day. But as we all know, that's that's a 100% possible anytime. Right? Mhmm.
Pete:You don't get to pick your your SAR missions, and and it just happened that day we were all fairly experienced, and we're able to use our experiences to, optimize all the tools we had at our disposal that day.
Bryan:Greg, once you were in position, you decided the first to the ship would be master corporal Normore. What made you decide he would be the first person to go down to the ship?
Greg:Yeah. We decided that, master corporal Normore would take the guideline down and then he'd establish the line and bring me down, second. And I would have the medical equipment and I so he could stay on the guideline and keep bringing because we knew we'd have to bring down, the rest of the crew. Right? Alain and Sebastian Gaudet and then some equipment as well.
Greg:So that way, Gary could stay on the on the guideline, and I could move into the ship and start triage. And then he could keep just bringing down the other StarTex. And then when Alain got down, he switched off with Alain, gave Alain the guideline. And then Gary came in to join me inside as Alain brought down Sebastian Cadet. And then we were able to by that time, I had already done a triage of who was injured and what the injuries were, started making formulate a plan for what equipment we needed and what was gonna get off.
Greg:We had already briefed it prior to arrival, what we were gonna what what we thought we wanted, and then we just confirmed. Yeah. We're gonna do this, this, and that exactly as we talked about or switch slightly. And that's when I kinda radio up to to the helicopter. And Pete was the main point of contract up there.
Greg:He was the guy I was talking to because everyone obviously, Matt was flying and, Todd Osman was in the back doing managing the cable and conning the helicopter. So Pete and I were in comms throughout and made a plan and started getting the injured guys packaged up and off off the vessel.
Bryan:What's it like observing that hoist down in the first moments when master corporal Normore was on the deck? Like, what were you concerned about?
Greg:Well, yeah. When we I mean, we broke through the clouds and we were over the search area, which they tell us from the front. Right? So we're all eyes out. Everyone's looking for the vessel.
Greg:We finally make contact with the target. We get into position, which is everyone to being active on that. Right? We're backing up towards a cliff. The pilots can't see the tail rotor or the cliff.
Greg:So we're trying to get their eyes on them, make sure they had enough space to maneuver with the gust. And then once we open the door, we can actually start to like look at the vessel with a bigger view. Cause we'll have only small glass windows in the box, bubble windows in the box. Open up the door and get a better view and we could hear the metal, through our helmets, through the noise of the helicopter, through us, being there through the ocean, we could hear the metal of the, of the ship being beaten up by, by the sea. And so we figured, and we could see the cranes violently shaking.
Greg:So we were like, all right, this is a time to get to work. And then we picked our location of where we thought was best suitable for hoist, on the wing bridge, which is a common place that we go to on these vessels. It's like the, where they steer and control the ship out of. So that's where all the crew was hunkered down in the, in the bridge deck. So we went down to there and, yeah, we started our plan and started getting people in inside the vessel, the Sartex inside to start the medical assessment and start to bring everyone to the extraction site.
Bryan:What was the deck like under your hands and knees? I've heard you guys, I think I read in the report, were making your way around crawling basically. Like, what's that like?
Greg:Yeah. It was covered in ice, so pretty slippery. And that's why it was it was a good decision for, Masterable Normore to go down with the line and and not to try to switch over the line. Sometimes we'll send the team leader first with the line, then the team member comes down and they kind of rotate kind of more for training. So that's why we opted not to do that, today.
Greg:And then so I was able just to leave, let him deal with the line and just disconnect and go right away, using the rail to get to the ship into the door. And the door was obviously it's a massive massive steel door that's closed. So I opened the door up and we it's it's so big. It's just slamming shut every time I gotta hold it open, talk to the crew that was inside. He was right at the front door, asked him how many guys ranger, you know, confirmed everything, and then closed the door, locked it off, grabbed some equipment out of, my harness.
Greg:And then we tied the door off. Gary threw me a sling and we ended up tying it around the door handle so that we could keep the door open throughout and it wouldn't, smash on us. And then as soon as that happened, the equipment started like next day, I knew equipment was on, on the deck and we, because it was so icy, wasn't easy to move the equipment. So we slid it around and then, yeah, I opted for once inside is like three points of contact because the boat was moving so violently inside to get around the ship to check on everyone. Were all spread out to the whole bridge.
Greg:Like, no, they weren't all clustered together. Everyone was just so big. I got to do a big loop around the entire thing. And then when I came back, we just use the handrail and it was just easier to slide on. We were knee pads, on our knees cause it's when you're guideline and you're going to be down on your, on your knees anyways.
Greg:So just to, you know, take care of them. So yeah, I just use the knee pads and slid around, basically pulled myself on the rail and it was easier than trying to stand on my feet at that point.
Bryan:So what was the scene like inside the bridge? Like I heard it was pretty rough in there.
Greg:Yeah, was an absolute mess. Everything has every, every cabinet is it's like a cabinets in your kitchen, right? So just wooden cabinets, nothing industrial about them. Although all the hinges blew off there, there were the doors blew off, all the drawers were open, everything had fallen out. Marine navigation manual, every document, every piece of paper they had had fallen out of all of the, all the cabinets was all over the floor, piled up in front of the floor that, in front of the door that we were accessing from.
Greg:There's, yeah, there's stuff everywhere. It was an absolute mess and everyone was just hunkered down, kind of in their own little clusters where they could find some, some safe space that something wasn't going to fall on their head or, they could hold on and for the ride. So they were just kind of everyone was hunkered down inside. And I so I made my my loop around and just checked on everyone and then started deciding who was going to be first, second, third, fourth, depending on their injuries.
Bryan:So how do you triage, 20 people in such a confined conditions in that bridge?
Greg:Yeah. I'm just looking to see if they're alert, stable, unstable, looking for bleeds, airway management, and see if they're breathing properly. So everyone was alert. They say we've all stable patients. Right?
Greg:Even the the most injured person, was not in a critical condition that needed, he he needed evacuation from the vessel and not immediate evacuation due to his medical condition. He had a a massive laceration on his forehead. Heads bleed pretty bad, so it definitely looked gruesome and it was need something we needed to tend to, but, enough some some direct pressure on that and the bandage wasn't gonna he wasn't gonna bleed out. And I knew that, from the medical training over the years through CIFSAR that we, we get. So yeah, I did the triage and then made a plan to get, obviously with him being on the ground and not being able to walk and stand up, that was the captain of the ship.
Greg:We needed some time to package him in the Stokes litter to set him up to the helicopter. So he was gonna be the second one off off the deck. We were gonna take one of the other injured crew members first in the basket because they were easier to move to the basket and get him in the basket. So as the basket is making its transition from the deck of the boat to the into the helicopter, that gives us time on the ground to get the next casualty into the stokes, button that up, clean that up, get that in position so when the cable comes back down, we can disconnect the basket and reconnect the stokes and send the stokes up immediately. We're trying not to waste any time.
Greg:And I think that speaks to the efficiency of the crew and having the the four Sartex because if we would have had less, we would have had to slow that process down in some manner. And so we were able to keep it nice and fast and smooth. So then the stretcher goes up with that, captain on board and in the helicopter, Sebastian Gaudet and Todd Osmond to, they take him out of the stretcher, put him onto what we have a cot in like a medical cot in the helicopter. And then they send back, they send the stretcher back down for us so we can get the next patient that needed the stretcher again. So that's a, also an abnormal procedure.
Greg:We don't usually do that. We usually have one stretcher for one patient or bring an extra stretcher just because the, we knew we wouldn't have a lot of space with the 20 casualties. We opted to bring, not an extra full Stokes, just an extra stretcher that we could use as a lifting device to move the next patient into it. So they sent the stretcher back down and then obviously we need to disconnect that and go set up the next patient that needs to be in the stretcher. So in that time, a great opportunity for the basket to go back up with another injured person.
Greg:We're kind of concurrently sending baskets as people are getting packaged into stretchers. And that's where I was communicating with, with Pete to say, okay, I need the stretcher back, baskets coming up. Then I'll be stretcher than a basket and a stretcher than a basket and then basket and then basket. Okay. The That's plan.
Greg:And going back and forth and keeping track of, okay, confirm we got 11 on board can, you know, make a quick count. And then he did that confirm what we had numbers and the sequence and everything was going, as the crew members saw that we were letting the guys that had their back, their backpacks or their kind of their personal gear with them. We could fit one person and some stuff in a basket together. So a suitcase could fit in. And we sent a guy up with his basket in the basket with his suitcase, like small little like rolly bag suitcase.
Greg:And I think the boys realized, wait, I can, I have time? I can go back to my cabin in the boat and get my passport and my personal effects. So again, I walked in the, I went back into the bridge of the boat and there was like, I'm like, wait a minute, this doesn't make sense. We need, we're supposed to have six people left here. What's going on?
Greg:And, Gary said the freaking guys just went down to get his passport or that stuff like that. Better not have to go hunt for this guy. He gets injured in the stairwell or something because the boat's moving pretty aggressively, but, yeah, he came back up and then we kind of, they were all, they all wanted to have a smoke. So we just said, yeah, she's not smoking the helicopter. So smoking the smoker right now, because you're getting on the helicopter and in three sequences you're next.
Bryan:As you got into the bridge there, like how, how were the crew doing? What was their morale like?
Greg:They were very thankful to see us. There was one crew member at the front to do like two guys sit at the front, but one guy was very helpful, spoke, English really well. He told me what was going on. I checked to see if he was injured. He told me no.
Greg:And who was the most injured? And I saw I was able to kind of like focus my energy on, on them. And then I kind of asked, okay, you need to, you and your buddy here, you need to get all this, all this junk out of the way of the door. Cause we're going to have to be using this door to get the stretcher in and out and you couldn't walk. The paper was obviously paper was so slippery.
Greg:It was piles of books and paper. So they started cleaning that up and we started tying off everything that we could, that was rolling around. Cause they just had like the chairs were just on wheels and they would just smash around and smash into people and rolling around. So we started tying everything off. So it wasn't causing more hazard.
Greg:But they were pretty happy to see us. I even checked on one guy and he's like complaining, oh, I'm injured. I'm injured. And I looked at them. I said, man, you're not in, you're not injured.
Greg:You're not going next. You're like, you're, I got, your buddies are way more hurt than you. So you'll go, but just not right now. So, just kind of told them all that, you know, we're gonna, we're there to take care of them. We'll get them out of here.
Greg:And they were very thankful. They were thankful then they were thankful on the helicopter and they were thankful in Deer Lake. So it didn't stop there. Their appreciation was very clear on their face. And you saw the relief in their eyes when we showed up and we opened the door and I did the, like I said, did the triage and they were concerned for their friends.
Greg:Like the one guy had a back, obviously a back injury and he was laying on the ground, getting beat around by the boat and his buddy was right beside him. Like, and then I just kind of said, don't worry, we got, you know, he's going to go next. We got him and, his buddy was, you know, kind of grabbed my arm and said, thank thank you. And I was like, I have no time for this. Gotta go.
Greg:We gotta go.
Bryan:Okay, guys. That's gonna wrap up part two. Just, thank you so much for your time for being here again today. And I'm really looking forward to part three where we talk about the conclusion of the rescue. Thank you.
Pete:Thank you. Thanks again for having us.
Bryan:Okay. That's gonna do it for part two. Tune in next week for part three, the conclusion of this amazing rescue story. Do you have any questions or comments about anything you've heard in this show? Would you or somebody you know make a great guest, or do you have a great idea for a show?
Bryan:You can reach out to us at the pilotprojectpodcast@Gmail.com or on all social media at at pod pilotproject. 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:Thanks for listening. Keep the blue side up.
Greg:See you. Engineer, shut down all four. Shutting down all four engines.