WEBVTT

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>> Speaker A: This podcast is presented by Skies Magazine. If

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you're interested in the Canadian aviation industry, Skies

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news, in depth features, stunning photography

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to learn more and subscribe to Stay updated on all things

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Canadian aviation.

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>> Speaker B: Fuel and Ignition switches on RPM

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switches set TD switches normal

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Doors and hatches closed Light out Strobe lightade

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on restart check to completee your left engineers

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start number two starting two

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quick 3001 00:10 pilot project podcast their

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takeoff Runway through one left.

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>> Bryan Morrison: All right, we'ready for.

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>> Bryan: ##Me departure here at the Pilot Project Podcast, the best source for stories

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and advice from RCAF and Mission aviation pilots brought

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to you by Skies Magazine. I am your host, Brian Morrison.

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With me once again today are Jason Shaw and Vince c. Benoit

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of 435Transort and Rescue Squadron. Jason is

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a pilot on the CC138 Hercules and Vince is a search

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and Rescue technician or sartech. Guys, welcome to the show

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and thanks again for being here.

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>> Bryan Morrison: Problem.

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>> Vince C. Benoit: Thanks for having us.

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>> Bryan: Listeners can go back to our previous episode to hear about both Jason and

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Vince's training experiences in their careers. For today, we're

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going to talk about a rescue the two of them and their crew took part in

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just over a year ago in December of 2023 when an air

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Attendy flight crashed in the Northwest Territories. Jason was

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a SAR aircraft commander and Vince was the Sarech team

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leader. So before we start, let's get some background information

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on the crash. On December 27,

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2023, a Twin Otter operated by Air Tindy crashed

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into a Hill about 300 km north of Yellowknife, Northwest

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Territories and 16 km southeast of the

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Dievk Diamond Mine. The Twin Otter was fitted with skis

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and crashed while attempting to land on Lac de Gras.

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Ten people were on board and survived the crash with various

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levels of injury. Air Tindy President Chris

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Reynolds told the local news that the flight crew was

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circling over the landing area looking for snowdriifts. They hadn't committed

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to landing yet. They didn't realize they had descended into basically

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a whiteout. The only time they realized that they had descended was when

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they saw a hill in front of them and that's basically where they impacted.

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So Jason, what did this day look like for you? What standby

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posture were you and your crew holding when this all took

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place?

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>> Bryan Morrison: Yeah, so the plane crash happened during there's a two week

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period where our uh, squadron is

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pretty much operating on an on call basis. So on

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like think of like an extended weekend posture from

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home. So during that two weeks we

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have uh, four different crews during

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that time that are rolling through. So at any given time there's a

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crew on two hour posture and a

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backup crew which is on like a 12 hour available

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posture. So for the most part um,

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the techs are still going into the hangar every day

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to do their daily checks on the aircraft, but that's

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it. The AIRC crews are just going to be at home. So

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everyone manages a little bit differently depending uh,

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on where you live. But generally speaking you have to be

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ready to after receiving the tasking,

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be on your way to work within five or 10 minutes.

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>> Bryan: And what's the process for a rescue asset to get tasked with a

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mission?

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>> Bryan Morrison: Well we get tasked by jrcc, yeah, Joint Rescue

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Coordination Center, Trenton. Um,

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they're going to get the info on a plane crash through a

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variety of means. Uh, that particular crash

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it had a 406 ELT.

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>> Bryan: An ELT is an emergency locator

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transmitter.

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>> Bryan Morrison: Beacon which in that center in

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Trenton they have an ability to track as well. I believe

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they're also communicating uh, with them on the

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ground some of the starives of the plane crash. So

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JRCC puts that task together, they decide on the

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asset that's best suited to um,

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prosecute that tasking and uh, they tasked us.

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>> Bryan: Okay, uh, Jason, can you describe the

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initial call and the information you received? What was your immediate

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reaction upon learning of the plane crash?

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>> Bryan Morrison: Yes, it was about twoock in the afternoon. One or two in the afternoon.

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Uh, the way it works is JRCC calls the aircraft

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commander first and they start giving me

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all the information they have for the tasking

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and then once I accept it they call the rest of the crew, the

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teh that we need to go in and tow the aircraft, fuel it

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and any additional assets need to get launched.

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So they had a pretty thorough,

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let's say package of information at that point

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thanks to the 406 and just some other information they

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had. Aircraft, uh, for example aircraft

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registration, type of aircraft,

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its exact coordinates, uh, what time it had

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crashed, the number of people on

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board, which there were some changes there, some

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general info on their uh, medical

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conditions and even

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that, an initial extraction plan for our satex and then

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they had some information on some additional assets that were being pointed to

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that direction as well. So getting all that like from

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my perspective within the first four or five minutes on

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the phone you can't really ask for much more than that because a lot

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of times when we get tasked, they have some information, but they know

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it's gonna be hours until we actually get on scene. So it's going to kind

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of trickle in as it comes. But for that one,

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pretty much all we needed.

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>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

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>> Bryan Morrison: And some stuff got refined a little bit later on, but

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generally it was like, this is the plane crash. This is where it

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is. This is what's on the ground. We want you to go there and deploy the

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satex. Um, you, like I said, a loose

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kind of estimation of the extraction plan.

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>> Bryan: What's the feeling when you get a call like this at this point?

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Is it pretty old hat? Are you pretty

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used to it? Do you feel calm or do you

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feel a sense of urgency when you get these calls?

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>> Bryan Morrison: Yeah, I think at this point I'm used to it. I just want to make

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sure that I'm getting all the information they

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have, that I'm asking all the right questions.

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They do a good job of pushing out everything they have. But I'm just

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making sure that initial few minutes I'm on the phone with, um,

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I have everything I need to kind of make a

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plan that's going to be suitable. There's

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sometimes not so much anymore, but maybe

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a little earlier on, you feel a different.

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Maybe the initial phone call or different points in the mission.

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You can kind of feel a little bit of that adrenaline coming up.

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I've learned it's not really useful for

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my job. Maybe it is for other, uh,

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trades in the sak cre, but I found

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I just kind of have to push that down. It doesn't help you make decisions.

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It doesn't help you hear and understand all the information

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you're being told, for sure. So, yeah,

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if you were just to be listening to me in my kitchen on the phone, you

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wouldn't even know what I was really. It would

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sound like another phone call, I'm sure. And I'm kind of sitting there writing

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some stuff down with my iPad. And a

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couple of early decisions that have to be made from that is

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whether we want to load up extra fuel. Because if we want to do that,

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they got to start getting the guys that are going to fuel the aircraft

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called in right away as well. Yeah.

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>> Bryan: Because that'll take a while.

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>> Bryan Morrison: Yeah. And the sooner they can know, uh, have that

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request, that can make that happen sooner as well.

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>> Bryan: Now, you mentioned that they had basically all the information

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you needed. Is that fairly rare when there's a plane

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crash?

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>> Bryan Morrison: Um, having that Much information

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right in that initial tasking is probably the best I've ever

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gotten.

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>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

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>> Bryan Morrison: I mean, usually you have more than you need to get launched and the stuff

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is going to come as they get it because they know

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it's like it's going to be an hour or two before we're actually taking

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off when they task us. And then we have like a three and a half hour transit up

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there. So it is no big deal if they're still working on some

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of the information and we're just pointed in that

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direction, flying there. We're going to get it.

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>> Bryan: Um, because you can refine the plan as you go,

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basically, as they feed you information during the transit.

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>> Jason Shaw: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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>> Bryan Morrison: As long as we have the basics, where it is, what to expect,

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what the overall intent of the

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mission is.

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>> Vince C. Benoit: But that plane, uh, had the 406, was on

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a flight plan and I had a sat phone on board.

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>> Bryan Morrison: Yeah.

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>> Vince C. Benoit: So not a lot of flyers out have all of that.

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>> Bryan Morrison: I'm pretty sure. I don't want to misquote them, but by

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the time they tasked us, you might know this as well. I think they

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were actually talking to them on the phone. That's how they had some of the casualty

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conditions.

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>> Vince C. Benoit: The pilot was talking to

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the owner of the company, and the owner of the company, I was talking

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to rcc.

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>> Bryan Morrison: So to get that in that initial phone call,

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that's pretty huge. What else do we really need? Right. I'm just

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thinking making sure we're happy with the extraction plan

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and that you're usually not going to get a detailed

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extraction plan right then because

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they're still working on that as well.

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>> Bryan: So when you get that call, how do you divide up the tasks in order to

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take off as soon as possible?

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>> Bryan Morrison: The great thing about that is I don't have to do that.

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Uh, everyone on the crew is

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qualified professional in their job. So it's

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not a matter of me tasking each

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crew member what to do.

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>> Bryan: Like, you're not like, hey, you got toa do this, you got toa do that.

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>> Bryan Morrison: So I'll walk through a little bit what the crew does. So we have

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theot, two pilots, the aircraft come in and the first

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officer. Then we also have the navigator who is an

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axo, the FO and the nav. Uh, they're doing a lot of the flight

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planning, weather, noams. So I'm just gonna tell them the intent of what I want for

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the flight plan and maybe a little guidance

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there and they're going to get working on filing it

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and even in that case, like our FO came up with some good ideas that

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I didn't even thought of because I just kind of

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gave a general intent. Right?

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>> Jason Shaw: Mhm.

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>> Bryan Morrison: Um, the flight engineer, Loadmaster, they're at

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the plane, they're pre flighting it, getting it ready to go. The teh are, they're

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fueling it, towing it. Um, if they come

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up, if they have any problems, those guys, they might call me and I

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can maybe from my end help help resolve

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them. And the Sartex. Like,

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I'm definitely not telling Vince what to bring, what to

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do. He's taken care of all that in this case. He

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even went out and got a third SAR tech based

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on the information he had got about the

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situation on the ground. So yeah, I'm

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not tasking people telling them what to do. It's more just kind of

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making sure everything's flowing in the right direction and solving problems as they

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come. And I'm reaching back to JRCC a couple times during

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that process and check and make sure there's any updated

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information.

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>> Bryan: Okay. So it's more of a collaborative process.

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>> Bryan Morrison: Everyone's doing their job.

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>> Bryan: Vince, what was the first you heard of this mission and how does the SAECK

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team get the call?

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>> Vince C. Benoit: Uh, I was actually in whenipeg

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running some errands with the family.

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Uh, and then we got the call. So

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uh, my partner at the time, she dropped me off with

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uh, right in front of the anger door.

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Kiss my kids, say, uh,

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don't know when I'mnna come back.

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Uh, love you, bye. That's normally how happens you don't know

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when you're going to come back. Because at that point we knew

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it was a confirmed crash and we knew we were authorized

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to jump, which is not always the case. Sometimes you're waiting

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for more information along the way. And as

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the uh, mission develops, you're asked for

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00:10:53.483 --> 00:10:56.379
permission to deploy asset. This case, it

241
00:10:56.387 --> 00:10:59.251
was pre approved. 10 people. That's

242
00:10:59.283 --> 00:11:02.250
why we called in an extra SAECH. Um,

243
00:11:02.755 --> 00:11:05.661
normally we are operating team of two and that's it. Team

244
00:11:05.693 --> 00:11:08.093
of two for 10 patients you get

245
00:11:08.149 --> 00:11:11.061
overwhelmed pretty fast. So I

246
00:11:11.093 --> 00:11:13.605
elected to bring a third one.

247
00:11:13.765 --> 00:11:16.425
Eindight. I would love to have a fort,

248
00:11:16.920 --> 00:11:19.781
uh, for 10 people. I think next time I'll bring

249
00:11:19.813 --> 00:11:22.813
more, uh, if schedule permits. That's

250
00:11:22.869 --> 00:11:25.145
always uh, a concern.

251
00:11:25.220 --> 00:11:28.037
Um, so did the startech

252
00:11:28.061 --> 00:11:30.300
get call? Well, uh,

253
00:11:30.685 --> 00:11:33.477
RCC is calling uh, the aircraft commander and then

254
00:11:33.501 --> 00:11:35.917
RCC is going to call wing ups and wing up is going to go

255
00:11:35.941 --> 00:11:38.907
down recall list. Uh, and

256
00:11:38.931 --> 00:11:41.763
then flight engineer team Lead team

257
00:11:41.819 --> 00:11:44.483
member and all that. If we want extra

258
00:11:44.539 --> 00:11:47.235
emppower, uh, which is

259
00:11:47.395 --> 00:11:50.363
call us directly or other sa tehs that are available in

260
00:11:50.379 --> 00:11:51.419
the area at that time.

261
00:11:51.507 --> 00:11:54.251
>> Bryan: Okay, so how does your team prepare for a call like

262
00:11:54.283 --> 00:11:56.375
this? And how do you decide what to bring?

263
00:11:57.035 --> 00:11:59.651
>> Vince C. Benoit: It's always look the same. We rush

264
00:11:59.723 --> 00:12:02.643
to uh, the anger and start pre flighting.

265
00:12:02.699 --> 00:12:05.620
So we confirm making sure all our equip is in order. We uh,

266
00:12:05.819 --> 00:12:08.601
have operational. That's just an example. We have operational

267
00:12:08.723 --> 00:12:11.445
parachute there in the aircraft that

268
00:12:11.565 --> 00:12:14.269
we don't use on a normal training day. We only use for

269
00:12:14.317 --> 00:12:17.213
option. I'm on the ground, I'm at

270
00:12:17.229 --> 00:12:19.265
the anger, I make sure those two

271
00:12:20.125 --> 00:12:21.520
are 100% correct.

272
00:12:21.520 --> 00:12:22.140
>> Jason Shaw: Mhm.

273
00:12:22.140 --> 00:12:25.133
>> Vince C. Benoit: That's a big thing because if I show up three and a half hour in the Arctic and I

274
00:12:25.149 --> 00:12:28.141
tell you well my purachute's not working, that's a big

275
00:12:28.173 --> 00:12:30.565
deal. So that's just one example. So we go through all our

276
00:12:30.605 --> 00:12:33.341
gear same. A firefighter

277
00:12:33.373 --> 00:12:36.277
would do that uh, before a shift. So we do the

278
00:12:36.301 --> 00:12:39.021
exact same thing every morning on a call out is no

279
00:12:39.053 --> 00:12:41.987
different. And then when it comes

280
00:12:42.011 --> 00:12:44.867
to mission planning, when I receive a call

281
00:12:44.931 --> 00:12:46.615
I always ask myself

282
00:12:48.315 --> 00:12:51.227
I need to bring extra equipment while I'm still here. Do I

283
00:12:51.251 --> 00:12:54.211
need to bring extra manpower or womenower?

284
00:12:54.283 --> 00:12:57.267
Because we'got uh, wicked female sartehs

285
00:12:57.291 --> 00:13:00.259
so let's not forget them. Um, do I

286
00:13:00.267 --> 00:13:02.775
need extrar people and

287
00:13:03.235 --> 00:13:05.911
can I execute that mission on my own with my own

288
00:13:05.943 --> 00:13:08.863
asset? Should I request RCC to

289
00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:11.855
task other units for that? And

290
00:13:11.895 --> 00:13:14.875
I also look at the weather. Although not my job,

291
00:13:16.375 --> 00:13:18.955
I'd like to be prepared to know what I'm getting into.

292
00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:22.527
Uh, we'll talk about the weather for that one. But when I pulled

293
00:13:22.551 --> 00:13:25.151
the weather it was the first thing that

294
00:13:25.343 --> 00:13:27.887
popped to my eyes was a low level jet at

295
00:13:27.991 --> 00:13:30.743
60kn, um coming from the north. So I

296
00:13:30.759 --> 00:13:33.421
was already thinking about that on my

297
00:13:33.453 --> 00:13:35.509
way into the hangar door.

298
00:13:35.597 --> 00:13:35.837
>> Bryan Morrison: Yeah.

299
00:13:35.861 --> 00:13:38.813
>> Bryan: And just for listeners, that's basically a low level jett

300
00:13:38.829 --> 00:13:41.589
stream, uh, is exactly what it sounds like. It's like

301
00:13:41.597 --> 00:13:44.517
a low level uh, high band of

302
00:13:44.541 --> 00:13:47.165
wind moving through the area. And 60 knots is probably close

303
00:13:47.205 --> 00:13:50.165
to 100 km or so an hour. So

304
00:13:50.285 --> 00:13:53.277
that's very fast. So we just started talking about

305
00:13:53.301 --> 00:13:56.205
that. Uh, Jason, did you have any concerns when you looked at all the variables

306
00:13:56.245 --> 00:13:57.185
for this mission?

307
00:13:57.905 --> 00:14:00.897
>> Bryan Morrison: Yeah, two things popped out right away. The weather and night

308
00:14:01.001 --> 00:14:03.841
and well, I guess three with night in the Arctic.

309
00:14:03.913 --> 00:14:04.593
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

310
00:14:04.769 --> 00:14:07.689
>> Bryan Morrison: So talked a little bit about the weather. Maybe

311
00:14:07.697 --> 00:14:10.513
I'll paint a little bit of a Broader picture. So that crash

312
00:14:10.569 --> 00:14:13.497
area was northeast of Yellowknife. Uh, just north

313
00:14:13.521 --> 00:14:16.385
of that area there was a low pressure system that was slowly moving through since

314
00:14:16.425 --> 00:14:19.241
that afternoon. And kind of

315
00:14:19.313 --> 00:14:22.169
all that nasty weather. The wraps around a low pressure system that

316
00:14:22.217 --> 00:14:24.937
jet jet included. So really on the

317
00:14:24.961 --> 00:14:27.521
forecast on the gfa, um, there was

318
00:14:27.553 --> 00:14:30.353
forecasted severe low level turbulence. That was probably my

319
00:14:30.369 --> 00:14:32.913
biggest concern. And then really

320
00:14:32.969 --> 00:14:35.805
anything below a thousand feet,

321
00:14:36.180 --> 00:14:39.125
um, it's goingn be low visibility, blowing snow,

322
00:14:39.425 --> 00:14:42.001
then just multiple layers of cloud wrapping around that low.

323
00:14:42.153 --> 00:14:43.465
>> Bryan: So really nasty stuff.

324
00:14:43.545 --> 00:14:43.753
>> Bryan Morrison: Yeah.

325
00:14:43.769 --> 00:14:44.425
>> Vince C. Benoit: So everywhere.

326
00:14:44.545 --> 00:14:47.305
>> Bryan Morrison: And you do pilot training, they bring up uh, a

327
00:14:47.345 --> 00:14:49.801
GFA and you never go anywhere where all the colors are.

328
00:14:49.873 --> 00:14:50.513
>> Jason Shaw: Right.

329
00:14:50.689 --> 00:14:52.177
>> Bryan Morrison: We pointed exactly at that.

330
00:14:52.241 --> 00:14:54.637
>> Bryan: So as sa often does.

331
00:14:54.741 --> 00:14:55.385
>> Bryan Morrison: Yep.

332
00:14:56.405 --> 00:14:59.293
>> Bryan: Did you have a plan fully formed when you took off or

333
00:14:59.389 --> 00:15:02.141
do you take off as soon as possible and then finish the plan on route?

334
00:15:02.213 --> 00:15:04.093
We've kind of mentioned that, but yeah.

335
00:15:04.109 --> 00:15:06.997
>> Bryan Morrison: And it's kind of been saluted to it as well. I think him and I maybe

336
00:15:07.021 --> 00:15:09.445
at not even like a five minute conversation on the ground

337
00:15:09.485 --> 00:15:12.485
because he's had his job to do, I got my job to do.

338
00:15:12.565 --> 00:15:15.357
Just make sure we're both kind of on the same page Y yet we're

339
00:15:15.381 --> 00:15:17.917
probably going there to do a jump. That's kind of like the

340
00:15:17.941 --> 00:15:20.693
agreement. How exactly? Well, we'll figure that out in the way

341
00:15:20.789 --> 00:15:23.693
and on the way. We didn't spend

342
00:15:23.749 --> 00:15:26.621
hours and hours drawing up these detailed plans. It's like

343
00:15:26.773 --> 00:15:29.745
we had kind of, I would say like three templates.

344
00:15:30.085 --> 00:15:32.997
First option, we want to get there jump the start

345
00:15:33.021 --> 00:15:35.745
tex as soon as we can to the plane crash. That's why we're going.

346
00:15:36.205 --> 00:15:38.437
But we need a certain amount of weather to do that. Certain

347
00:15:38.501 --> 00:15:41.077
ceilings. Um, so if we didn't have that when we got

348
00:15:41.101 --> 00:15:44.021
there, we talked about dropping some equipment

349
00:15:44.053 --> 00:15:46.829
first and then maybe the ceilings would

350
00:15:46.877 --> 00:15:49.501
improve, um, a little less

351
00:15:49.533 --> 00:15:52.509
favorable because now there's no one on the ground to receive that equipment. And

352
00:15:52.517 --> 00:15:55.469
there was high winds as well. And third option, as part of

353
00:15:55.477 --> 00:15:58.349
the mission planning, when we took off from Winnipeg, we uploaded

354
00:15:58.477 --> 00:16:01.181
just about the maximum amount of fuel that hurt can take,

355
00:16:01.373 --> 00:16:04.229
which would have, depending on where our bingo plan

356
00:16:04.277 --> 00:16:07.165
was, would have given us like four hours on

357
00:16:07.205 --> 00:16:10.109
scene. So kind of least favorable of

358
00:16:10.197 --> 00:16:13.059
all the options to go up there and just wait. ###ill the weather

359
00:16:13.107 --> 00:16:15.987
improved because that low was moving through on the

360
00:16:16.011 --> 00:16:18.915
scale of hours. So it's really like

361
00:16:18.955 --> 00:16:21.535
those three plans maybe Vincecent and I talk about

362
00:16:22.195 --> 00:16:25.163
some of the details of how the sequences are going to go and we're

363
00:16:25.179 --> 00:16:26.935
just Going to see what the weather is. Because

364
00:16:27.915 --> 00:16:30.787
at night it's almost like

365
00:16:30.811 --> 00:16:33.763
a playbook of things. We have maneuvers and sequences we can

366
00:16:33.779 --> 00:16:36.059
do to accomplish our job. And it's just

367
00:16:36.187 --> 00:16:38.787
adapting to what we actually see on the ground, what the weather's

368
00:16:38.811 --> 00:16:39.205
doing.

369
00:16:39.315 --> 00:16:40.097
>> Jason Shaw: Okay.

370
00:16:40.281 --> 00:16:43.241
>> Vince C. Benoit: We talked a lot about bingo plan as well. That's a big

371
00:16:43.273 --> 00:16:46.241
part of the. Because once

372
00:16:46.273 --> 00:16:49.233
you get dropped off in the middle of nowhere, you want

373
00:16:49.249 --> 00:16:51.045
to know where your asset is going.

374
00:16:51.825 --> 00:16:54.561
And big picture, what's the best

375
00:16:54.593 --> 00:16:57.457
outcome for that asset and what'quickest recovery we can

376
00:16:57.481 --> 00:16:58.249
get from it.

377
00:16:58.337 --> 00:16:59.005
>> Jason Shaw: Yep.

378
00:16:59.785 --> 00:17:02.401
>> Bryan: So, uh, Vince, did you guys have to bring any extra gear for this

379
00:17:02.433 --> 00:17:03.085
mission?

380
00:17:03.550 --> 00:17:06.448
>> Vince C. Benoit: Uh, yeah, we brought extra, uh, like

381
00:17:06.496 --> 00:17:08.984
warm equipment, like extra tents, extra

382
00:17:09.064 --> 00:17:11.720
hothermia kit. Because we

383
00:17:11.752 --> 00:17:14.656
carryl a lot of equipment on the earth. Uh, it's

384
00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:16.884
insane the amount of gear we carry.

385
00:17:17.464 --> 00:17:20.184
But always we're not set up for

386
00:17:20.224 --> 00:17:22.920
10 patient in

387
00:17:22.952 --> 00:17:25.944
that type of cold environment. So we grab

388
00:17:25.984 --> 00:17:28.896
chts, sleeping bags and all that stuff that we all

389
00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:31.644
have that gear ready at the anger.

390
00:17:32.405 --> 00:17:35.125
>> Bryan: So Vince, what are starttehs doing during the transit to a crash

391
00:17:35.165 --> 00:17:38.145
site? Are you making any preparations or running any drills?

392
00:17:38.725 --> 00:17:41.501
>> Vince C. Benoit: Every team lead is going to run as mission differently.

393
00:17:41.573 --> 00:17:44.477
The way I approach it, the same way as I was doing back in the army,

394
00:17:44.501 --> 00:17:46.930
is we always tackle group uh,

395
00:17:47.349 --> 00:17:50.261
equipment first, uh, followed

396
00:17:50.293 --> 00:17:52.685
by personal equipment, followed

397
00:17:52.725 --> 00:17:55.717
by hydrate, eat and

398
00:17:55.741 --> 00:17:58.261
rest. So we add three and a half

399
00:17:58.293 --> 00:18:00.743
hours to go up there. We prepped all the

400
00:18:00.759 --> 00:18:03.711
hypertothermia equipment, all the big bundles that the aircraft

401
00:18:03.863 --> 00:18:06.263
can drop to us. Everything that was critical was

402
00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:08.839
rigged, followed by all our personal equipment.

403
00:18:08.887 --> 00:18:11.479
So we jump heavy bags in front of

404
00:18:11.487 --> 00:18:14.463
us. That's um, medical gear.

405
00:18:14.519 --> 00:18:17.470
That's our own survival equipment for cold weather.

406
00:18:17.470 --> 00:18:20.395
Uh, that's uh, firearms for bear protection.

407
00:18:21.975 --> 00:18:24.515
Name it, uh, electronics for medical,

408
00:18:25.640 --> 00:18:28.315
um, food, all that stuff.

409
00:18:28.895 --> 00:18:31.863
And then, uh, on board we had the

410
00:18:31.879 --> 00:18:34.711
lonemaster and I asked him to cook us some warm

411
00:18:34.743 --> 00:18:37.487
meal because we have three and a half hours. So we cooked all

412
00:18:37.551 --> 00:18:40.455
the entire crew a warm meal. We had a warm breakfast

413
00:18:40.575 --> 00:18:43.575
before going out because we knew we would be busy there in theire night.

414
00:18:43.655 --> 00:18:45.995
I had breakfast, it was dinner time,

415
00:18:46.260 --> 00:18:48.355
um, followed by rest.

416
00:18:48.735 --> 00:18:51.719
So I put my, uh, my team

417
00:18:51.767 --> 00:18:54.711
members to sleepah. I assure you I didn't

418
00:18:54.743 --> 00:18:57.335
sleep at all because your brain

419
00:18:57.375 --> 00:19:00.023
just keepsing and tink and planning with

420
00:19:00.039 --> 00:19:02.855
Jay. Uh, but that's kind of the order

421
00:19:02.975 --> 00:19:05.315
of things we dok. So when we

422
00:19:06.215 --> 00:19:08.991
show up to on scene, we're fully dressed and

423
00:19:09.023 --> 00:19:11.903
ready to go. And uh, if

424
00:19:11.919 --> 00:19:14.719
you can get an hour of eyes Closed. It's

425
00:19:14.767 --> 00:19:15.887
always good, for sure.

426
00:19:15.951 --> 00:19:18.861
>> Bryan Morrison: There's a few moments of the mission that kind of stick out. Just random

427
00:19:18.893 --> 00:19:21.573
little things. And hearing him come on the intercom and ask the

428
00:19:21.589 --> 00:19:24.453
lomaster, get some hot meals. Like

429
00:19:24.469 --> 00:19:27.301
that's not something we would do at that point in the mission. Usually

430
00:19:27.453 --> 00:19:30.105
he's looking to get his guys fed because, you know,

431
00:19:30.525 --> 00:19:32.965
you're on the ground now for probably at least 12 hours at that point.

432
00:19:33.005 --> 00:19:35.877
So I remember thinking like, wow, that's for

433
00:19:35.901 --> 00:19:36.665
real now.

434
00:19:37.285 --> 00:19:38.665
>> Bryan: Yeah, it's good thinking.

435
00:19:40.325 --> 00:19:42.661
So Jason, how did you find the downed aircraft in this

436
00:19:42.693 --> 00:19:43.345
mission?

437
00:19:44.225 --> 00:19:46.537
>> Bryan Morrison: Okay, so we took off with our

438
00:19:46.561 --> 00:19:49.497
tasking. Um, we had the coordinates from

439
00:19:49.521 --> 00:19:52.185
the 406 LT, so the exact lat

440
00:19:52.225 --> 00:19:55.153
long. And then we have kit on the HERC as well

441
00:19:55.209 --> 00:19:58.081
that can track an ELT most

442
00:19:58.113 --> 00:20:00.945
pilots get to understand, like on an ehsi, simple

443
00:20:00.985 --> 00:20:03.833
needle. And we set up the kit and there's,

444
00:20:03.889 --> 00:20:06.365
we call it DF Needle. So

445
00:20:07.265 --> 00:20:09.805
really that's it. Um, we,

446
00:20:10.565 --> 00:20:13.549
I took it a little bit slower entering the search area with the

447
00:20:13.597 --> 00:20:16.485
concerns of the, uh, severe level turbulence. Severe low level

448
00:20:16.525 --> 00:20:19.269
turbulence. We just kind of wanted to work our way in a little slower than

449
00:20:19.277 --> 00:20:21.757
we normally would, kind of check it out

450
00:20:21.821 --> 00:20:24.685
1,000ft at a time. Stepping down to make sure it was everything

451
00:20:24.765 --> 00:20:27.517
that we could deal with. Uh, but then once we got

452
00:20:27.541 --> 00:20:30.301
there, the kit, what we saw in the kit was coinciding

453
00:20:30.333 --> 00:20:33.145
with the coordinates they gave us.

454
00:20:33.485 --> 00:20:35.265
So we found it electronically first.

455
00:20:36.235 --> 00:20:39.067
We're in cloud and we can see we're

456
00:20:39.131 --> 00:20:42.083
passing over and uh, our kit with

457
00:20:42.099 --> 00:20:44.971
a station passage, the needle flipping much like passing

458
00:20:45.003 --> 00:20:47.843
over an adf, um, indicates that we're in that

459
00:20:47.899 --> 00:20:48.235
area.

460
00:20:48.315 --> 00:20:48.715
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

461
00:20:48.795 --> 00:20:51.747
>> Bryan: And for the non pilots listening, uh, basically

462
00:20:51.811 --> 00:20:54.779
there's a, he's saying when he says an adf, it's Automatic Direction

463
00:20:54.827 --> 00:20:57.811
Finder. Um, it's a type of navigational aid. But the point

464
00:20:57.843 --> 00:21:00.691
is the needle will point to this source, this

465
00:21:00.723 --> 00:21:03.399
radio source in this case. And when you fly

466
00:21:03.447 --> 00:21:06.383
directly over it, the needle is pointing straight ahead of you. And

467
00:21:06.399 --> 00:21:09.303
then as you fly over top, it spins around and now it's pointing behind you because

468
00:21:09.319 --> 00:21:12.167
you just flew past it. Um, so that's how you know you've.

469
00:21:12.191 --> 00:21:15.103
>> Bryan Morrison: Just flown over top and you're in the area, you still might

470
00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:18.111
have some work to do to actually physically find it. It

471
00:21:18.143 --> 00:21:20.607
dries on it, but at least you know, you're probably within

472
00:21:20.631 --> 00:21:23.407
like a mile radius around it at that

473
00:21:23.431 --> 00:21:23.735
point.

474
00:21:23.815 --> 00:21:26.423
>> Bryan: Okay, so you arrived on scene about

475
00:21:26.479 --> 00:21:29.351
7pm local time. What were the conditions at the time?

476
00:21:29.543 --> 00:21:32.431
>> Bryan Morrison: Yeah, so I Talked about working our way through potential turbulence

477
00:21:32.463 --> 00:21:35.207
on the way in. Didn't find it was

478
00:21:35.231 --> 00:21:37.887
anything that we couldn't deal with initially.

479
00:21:37.991 --> 00:21:40.847
So when we arrived, how we do it is

480
00:21:40.871 --> 00:21:43.823
we descend initially to a minimum ifr safe altitude

481
00:21:43.839 --> 00:21:46.823
at night. So something like a couple thousand feet up there just to make sure

482
00:21:46.839 --> 00:21:49.475
we're safe. Uh, what we initially saw,

483
00:21:49.890 --> 00:21:52.831
um, what we were seeing as winds probably about

484
00:21:52.863 --> 00:21:55.417
50 knots at altitude about

485
00:21:55.441 --> 00:21:57.817
3,000ft and up and increasing a little bit as we

486
00:21:57.881 --> 00:21:59.280
descended, um,

487
00:22:00.705 --> 00:22:03.617
multiple cloud layers from 2

488
00:22:03.641 --> 00:22:05.777
to 5,000ft and below

489
00:22:05.801 --> 00:22:08.753
1,000ft. I think the best way to describe it is

490
00:22:08.769 --> 00:22:11.337
pretty much a blizzard. Right? Blizzard below

491
00:22:11.361 --> 00:22:14.329
1,000ft, low vis blowing snow,

492
00:22:14.497 --> 00:22:15.353
high winds.

493
00:22:15.489 --> 00:22:16.449
>> Bryan: So pretty ugly.

494
00:22:16.537 --> 00:22:17.165
>> Jason Shaw: Yep.

495
00:22:17.625 --> 00:22:20.565
>> Bryan: How challenging is flying the Hercules in those kinds of conditions?

496
00:22:21.365 --> 00:22:24.173
>> Bryan Morrison: You gotta put it in context, what we're trying to do. Um, we're trying

497
00:22:24.189 --> 00:22:26.733
to provide a stable platform for the guys in the

498
00:22:26.749 --> 00:22:29.741
back, so a stable platform for them to

499
00:22:29.853 --> 00:22:32.533
work basically, whether it's observing up the

500
00:22:32.549 --> 00:22:35.533
windows, getting dressed to jump or when

501
00:22:35.549 --> 00:22:38.517
they actually jump. So trying to fly the

502
00:22:38.541 --> 00:22:41.517
Herc accurately, going from like a 50 knot headwind

503
00:22:41.541 --> 00:22:44.517
to a 50 knot tailwind in windshar at night and

504
00:22:44.541 --> 00:22:47.333
trying to do it in a way that it's stable for everyone to actually

505
00:22:47.389 --> 00:22:49.785
do their job in the back, it's pretty challenging.

506
00:22:50.300 --> 00:22:52.923
Um, in that environment it's kind

507
00:22:52.939 --> 00:22:55.891
of, the pilots could probably understand. It's kind of like a

508
00:22:55.923 --> 00:22:58.827
hybrid cross cheeckk. It's like a lot of time

509
00:22:58.851 --> 00:23:00.335
you're inside on the instruments,

510
00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:03.603
um, airspeed, altitude, the

511
00:23:03.619 --> 00:23:06.563
navigation instruments, but everything is also outside. So you're trying

512
00:23:06.579 --> 00:23:09.467
to, like when we're doing the drops, you're flying mostly

513
00:23:09.491 --> 00:23:12.491
off of instruments, but you're also outside trying to line up two

514
00:23:12.523 --> 00:23:14.375
little small light dots,

515
00:23:14.880 --> 00:23:17.795
um, to do the actual drops.

516
00:23:18.855 --> 00:23:19.943
>> Bryan: Sounds really hard.

517
00:23:20.079 --> 00:23:22.791
>> Bryan Morrison: You kind of bring all those MOA skills

518
00:23:22.823 --> 00:23:25.671
in VFR flying, IFR flying, and you're night

519
00:23:25.703 --> 00:23:28.655
flying and you're kind of um, mashing it all into

520
00:23:28.815 --> 00:23:29.715
one thing.

521
00:23:31.055 --> 00:23:34.047
>> Bryan: Can you tell us how you clear the area of obstacles in those kinds of

522
00:23:34.071 --> 00:23:36.635
conditions? And how do you find the aircraft visually?

523
00:23:37.375 --> 00:23:39.911
>> Bryan Morrison: So I talked a little bit about the playbook of things we use.

524
00:23:39.983 --> 00:23:42.515
So we call that a training target assessment.

525
00:23:43.185 --> 00:23:45.889
So essentially we show up at an altitude that's safe for

526
00:23:45.897 --> 00:23:48.833
us. Uh, we're going to drop flare and then we're

527
00:23:48.849 --> 00:23:51.433
going to descend around the flare and the flares just basically

528
00:23:51.489 --> 00:23:54.329
il illuminating the area. And the

529
00:23:54.337 --> 00:23:57.097
first step is we're trying to make sure the area out to a few

530
00:23:57.121 --> 00:23:59.865
miles is safe for us to Operating in. So during that

531
00:23:59.905 --> 00:24:02.793
time the other pilot's going to be flying and me and

532
00:24:02.809 --> 00:24:05.697
Vince, I'm out my window, he's out the side and we're just communicating.

533
00:24:05.721 --> 00:24:08.445
We're looking for terrain, obstacles,

534
00:24:08.580 --> 00:24:11.409
um, low lying fog, maybe

535
00:24:11.457 --> 00:24:14.417
power lines, anything that's going to make it unsafe for us to

536
00:24:14.441 --> 00:24:17.337
operate within that few miles. We're happy

537
00:24:17.361 --> 00:24:20.353
with that. Now we're going to keep descending and

538
00:24:20.449 --> 00:24:23.177
now we're actually trying to find the target. So this occurs

539
00:24:23.241 --> 00:24:26.177
all after we've located the target electronically and we

540
00:24:26.201 --> 00:24:28.965
put that in basically the kit of our aircraft.

541
00:24:29.545 --> 00:24:32.081
So now we're around where we know the target should

542
00:24:32.113 --> 00:24:34.673
be. And we were really

543
00:24:34.729 --> 00:24:37.727
fortunate on that first flare, um, we actually

544
00:24:37.751 --> 00:24:40.687
saw the aircraft. So as we're talking look

545
00:24:40.751 --> 00:24:43.711
outside, um, and I still

546
00:24:43.743 --> 00:24:46.115
remember to see the intact aircraft

547
00:24:46.655 --> 00:24:49.527
on the tunder floor. Me and

548
00:24:49.551 --> 00:24:52.215
Vince are talking, I'm sure at that point he's also trying to

549
00:24:52.335 --> 00:24:55.159
pick out a DZ for where they could potentially jump.

550
00:24:55.287 --> 00:24:58.235
>> Bryan: And for the listeners a DZ is a drop zone.

551
00:24:58.420 --> 00:25:01.199
>> Bryan Morrison: Um, I think maybe one of the Startteks saw

552
00:25:01.287 --> 00:25:03.335
tent at that point. But

553
00:25:03.955 --> 00:25:06.907
really big moment in the mission and really fortunate for that to happen

554
00:25:07.011 --> 00:25:10.011
on that first pass like that because that can take. We could have

555
00:25:10.043 --> 00:25:12.363
had to climb up and try flares like

556
00:25:12.539 --> 00:25:15.499
multiple times to have that happen. Um, that was the

557
00:25:15.547 --> 00:25:17.499
only time I ever saw the aircraft the entire mission.

558
00:25:17.587 --> 00:25:18.043
>> Jason Shaw: Oh, wow.

559
00:25:18.099 --> 00:25:21.019
>> Bryan Morrison: Yep. Uh, the rest of the time flying it

560
00:25:21.027 --> 00:25:23.815
was a light or whatever, something they'd put to kind of

561
00:25:24.275 --> 00:25:26.307
so I could see where the down aircraft was.

562
00:25:26.411 --> 00:25:26.891
>> Jason Shaw: Wow.

563
00:25:27.003 --> 00:25:28.725
>> Bryan: So that's pretty lucky.

564
00:25:28.835 --> 00:25:29.485
>> Jason Shaw: Yep.

565
00:25:30.625 --> 00:25:33.585
>> Bryan: So Vince, as part of all this you were able to confirm that the ceilings

566
00:25:33.625 --> 00:25:36.537
were above the minimum to jump, but the winds were twice the training

567
00:25:36.561 --> 00:25:39.449
limits you would normally work with. What are the extra risks

568
00:25:39.497 --> 00:25:42.401
when parachuting into these kinds of conditions, especially with all the extra

569
00:25:42.433 --> 00:25:43.725
gear you had to jump with.

570
00:25:44.225 --> 00:25:46.617
>> Vince C. Benoit: So just to put it in perspective

571
00:25:46.801 --> 00:25:49.385
or training limit at night would be 20

572
00:25:49.425 --> 00:25:52.369
knots. Uh, the win on that

573
00:25:52.417 --> 00:25:55.377
specific jump was above 50. I don't have the exact number on

574
00:25:55.401 --> 00:25:58.121
the ground but it was as I

575
00:25:58.153 --> 00:26:00.553
described on my first radio check. It was

576
00:26:00.649 --> 00:26:03.300
sporty. Uh,

577
00:26:03.300 --> 00:26:04.005
so

578
00:26:05.865 --> 00:26:08.445
people often describe Starrtek as cowboy

579
00:26:08.865 --> 00:26:11.165
because we parachute,

580
00:26:11.945 --> 00:26:14.769
we ski, we climb mountains,

581
00:26:14.817 --> 00:26:17.737
we do all that stuff. But it's

582
00:26:17.761 --> 00:26:20.125
quite the opposite actually. You know,

583
00:26:20.800 --> 00:26:23.650
uh, we're flying, we're getting into that uh,

584
00:26:23.650 --> 00:26:26.617
that nasty weather and

585
00:26:26.641 --> 00:26:29.165
I'm assessing the risk. Same same as

586
00:26:29.585 --> 00:26:32.201
Jay's doing upfron. I have two brand

587
00:26:32.233 --> 00:26:35.073
new team members in the back. Do you

588
00:26:35.089 --> 00:26:37.977
have kids at home? I just kiss my two

589
00:26:38.001 --> 00:26:40.833
kids goodbye. Uh, so it's

590
00:26:40.849 --> 00:26:43.665
not something we take lightly. I would not

591
00:26:43.745 --> 00:26:46.425
jump in 50, not win on a

592
00:26:46.465 --> 00:26:49.401
normal training day. Yeah, but there's 10

593
00:26:49.433 --> 00:26:52.145
people there that are. That are

594
00:26:52.485 --> 00:26:54.909
dying from the element, really, that needs

595
00:26:54.957 --> 00:26:57.309
help. So what do you do?

596
00:26:57.437 --> 00:27:00.341
Right, of course, you

597
00:27:00.373 --> 00:27:02.989
can't take a harsh or

598
00:27:03.037 --> 00:27:05.813
drastic decision just based on the sole fact

599
00:27:05.869 --> 00:27:08.605
that there's people that need help. But it weighs.

600
00:27:08.685 --> 00:27:11.301
It weighs in the equation for sure. Like, we would be lying if

601
00:27:11.373 --> 00:27:14.157
we'say otherwise. So you kind of

602
00:27:14.221 --> 00:27:17.109
tackle those risk factor one at

603
00:27:17.117 --> 00:27:19.515
a time, and you kind of dissect it.

604
00:27:19.855 --> 00:27:22.695
So the way I see it is Jay and I

605
00:27:22.775 --> 00:27:25.715
are kind of dancing. We show up on scene.

606
00:27:26.095 --> 00:27:29.063
He's got his plateful, he's flying into that.

607
00:27:29.239 --> 00:27:31.871
I got the thing I want to do, but we're

608
00:27:31.903 --> 00:27:34.351
not. We don't want to step on each other's

609
00:27:34.503 --> 00:27:37.367
toes, and we just dance with what

610
00:27:37.391 --> 00:27:39.551
we got. So I'm in the window looking.

611
00:27:39.743 --> 00:27:42.687
He's head, uh, down and up, flying. And we

612
00:27:42.711 --> 00:27:45.585
kind of do our best to make it. To make it

613
00:27:45.625 --> 00:27:48.605
smooth. And everybody is on comps. So if one of us

614
00:27:49.065 --> 00:27:51.817
step on each other's toes, we lose the

615
00:27:51.841 --> 00:27:54.697
pace. So we're kind of dancing together, and then

616
00:27:54.721 --> 00:27:57.085
we're assessing the risk. And

617
00:27:57.585 --> 00:28:00.521
yes, it was I risk,

618
00:28:00.633 --> 00:28:03.001
but I reward, uh, it was

619
00:28:03.073 --> 00:28:06.049
also I was confident we could

620
00:28:06.097 --> 00:28:08.977
execute it because of the way we train

621
00:28:09.001 --> 00:28:11.957
our people, because of my trust in

622
00:28:11.981 --> 00:28:14.745
the procedure, because we train them all the time,

623
00:28:15.045 --> 00:28:17.917
and my trust in the crew around me, I knew

624
00:28:17.941 --> 00:28:20.925
we could execute it. But that's not a

625
00:28:20.965 --> 00:28:22.905
decision I took on my own. And

626
00:28:23.885 --> 00:28:26.845
Jade didn'force me to do it. We came up

627
00:28:26.885 --> 00:28:29.813
with the best course of action. And

628
00:28:29.829 --> 00:28:32.733
I remember pausing before I stepped out,

629
00:28:32.789 --> 00:28:34.305
before I went on off gu

630
00:28:35.325 --> 00:28:37.839
I after my brief, I was like, okay,

631
00:28:37.927 --> 00:28:40.471
crew, this is a pretty spicy

632
00:28:40.503 --> 00:28:43.503
one. Is there anything I forgot? Is

633
00:28:43.519 --> 00:28:46.439
there anybody in their crew that's not comfortable with that right now? Now

634
00:28:46.447 --> 00:28:49.351
it's the time to speak. Because, of course my two

635
00:28:49.383 --> 00:28:52.075
team members are going to say, yeah, yeah, we're going. Yeah,

636
00:28:52.415 --> 00:28:55.111
yeah, okay, sure. They're always going to say, yeah, we're

637
00:28:55.143 --> 00:28:55.715
good.

638
00:28:55.750 --> 00:28:57.527
>> Jason Shaw: Uh, yeah.

639
00:28:57.671 --> 00:28:58.915
>> Vince C. Benoit: It's a crew decision.

640
00:28:59.855 --> 00:29:02.579
>> Bryan Morrison: The AC team lead kind of

641
00:29:02.627 --> 00:29:05.603
relationship. Like he alluded to it. I

642
00:29:05.619 --> 00:29:08.055
can't order them to jump, nor would I want to,

643
00:29:08.715 --> 00:29:10.695
but everything that leaves the aircraft

644
00:29:11.435 --> 00:29:14.427
is on my authority as well. So it gives us no choice but

645
00:29:14.451 --> 00:29:16.975
to actually work together. And if we're not,

646
00:29:17.675 --> 00:29:19.055
it's just not going toa work.

647
00:29:19.515 --> 00:29:22.403
>> Bryan: It's interesting. So what's going through

648
00:29:22.419 --> 00:29:25.307
your head when you're about to parachute into a remote location in the

649
00:29:25.331 --> 00:29:25.895
dark?

650
00:29:26.795 --> 00:29:29.625
>> Vince C. Benoit: Again, the safety, I, uh, did

651
00:29:29.665 --> 00:29:31.945
not realize it at the time. That's

652
00:29:31.985 --> 00:29:32.805
eyinsight.

653
00:29:34.465 --> 00:29:36.805
It took a lot from me

654
00:29:37.585 --> 00:29:40.449
to take that decision and put

655
00:29:40.577 --> 00:29:43.241
my members into arm's way, if that makes

656
00:29:43.273 --> 00:29:46.265
sense. Uh, it's not something we took

657
00:29:46.305 --> 00:29:48.845
lightly, but again,

658
00:29:48.870 --> 00:29:51.585
um, we were trained for it, and it went

659
00:29:51.625 --> 00:29:54.225
well. Um, yeah,

660
00:29:54.685 --> 00:29:55.693
so we mentioned that you'd.

661
00:29:55.709 --> 00:29:58.421
>> Bryan: Be jumping with a lot of gear. What exactly were you jumping in

662
00:29:58.453 --> 00:29:59.025
with?

663
00:29:59.405 --> 00:30:02.021
>> Vince C. Benoit: So, yeah, every sateh are

664
00:30:02.053 --> 00:30:04.810
jumping with, uh, what's called, uh,

665
00:30:04.901 --> 00:30:07.637
a sar pels. I don't know what the akron

666
00:30:07.701 --> 00:30:10.661
stand for, but it's a bag that's strapped to the front of your

667
00:30:10.693 --> 00:30:13.465
parachute and connect to your leg, and it's mounted in front of you.

668
00:30:14.285 --> 00:30:17.205
And in addition to that, you can put an extender

669
00:30:17.245 --> 00:30:20.235
bag in front, and

670
00:30:20.395 --> 00:30:22.815
you can even add a snowshoe bag.

671
00:30:23.195 --> 00:30:26.107
So in this machine, we had £100 Trapp

672
00:30:26.131 --> 00:30:28.971
in front of us, like medical gear, survival gear,

673
00:30:29.083 --> 00:30:31.451
food, water. That's crazy,

674
00:30:31.563 --> 00:30:34.035
because we need to

675
00:30:34.075 --> 00:30:36.755
survive for a minimum 24 hours,

676
00:30:36.875 --> 00:30:39.803
no matter what condition we're in. What if all of the rest

677
00:30:39.819 --> 00:30:42.667
of our equipment get lost? What if as

678
00:30:42.691 --> 00:30:45.423
soon as I leave the ramp, the

679
00:30:45.439 --> 00:30:48.423
aircraft got RTB for an emergency? Now

680
00:30:48.439 --> 00:30:51.327
I'm stuck in the m middle of arctic in a blizzard at night. I

681
00:30:51.351 --> 00:30:54.080
need that gear. Uh,

682
00:30:54.080 --> 00:30:57.047
so, yeah, medical gear, electronics,

683
00:30:57.151 --> 00:30:59.940
survival equipment. Um,

684
00:30:59.940 --> 00:31:02.431
I jump a shotgun for bear

685
00:31:02.463 --> 00:31:05.311
protection because. Or wolf

686
00:31:05.343 --> 00:31:08.223
protection, because sometimes we

687
00:31:08.239 --> 00:31:10.915
need protection. Ended up

688
00:31:11.225 --> 00:31:14.001
not ning it. Even polar bears didn't want to go out at that

689
00:31:14.033 --> 00:31:16.140
time that night.

690
00:31:16.140 --> 00:31:19.001
Um, yeah, about 100

691
00:31:19.033 --> 00:31:19.605
pound.

692
00:31:19.905 --> 00:31:21.969
>> Bryan: That's crazy. That's a lot of stuff.

693
00:31:22.097 --> 00:31:22.805
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

694
00:31:23.465 --> 00:31:26.441
>> Bryan: So, Jason, walk us through what happens during the jump from

695
00:31:26.473 --> 00:31:27.525
your perspective.

696
00:31:28.345 --> 00:31:30.510
>> Bryan Morrison: So again, it goes back to our playbook.

697
00:31:30.510 --> 00:31:32.913
Um, there's a couple options. We have to get

698
00:31:32.929 --> 00:31:35.657
sartex into a location at

699
00:31:35.681 --> 00:31:38.395
night. Uh, this procedure,

700
00:31:38.515 --> 00:31:40.843
essentially, we go to our drop altitude. We

701
00:31:40.859 --> 00:31:43.427
opted, uh, to jump them at 2,000ft that

702
00:31:43.451 --> 00:31:46.451
night, and we drop a wind drift indicator,

703
00:31:46.523 --> 00:31:49.523
which is just like a giant, like, we call it a disco ball,

704
00:31:49.699 --> 00:31:52.227
and it's just a green disco ball lights

705
00:31:52.251 --> 00:31:55.175
up, and that kind of tells us what the winds are doing.

706
00:31:55.555 --> 00:31:58.467
So then we get our timing off of that. Uh, we climb

707
00:31:58.491 --> 00:32:01.467
up a few thousand feet for the flares. We're

708
00:32:01.491 --> 00:32:04.381
going to drop flares up into the target so they kind of flow

709
00:32:04.413 --> 00:32:07.237
back over the target. We're going need to descend down over the

710
00:32:07.261 --> 00:32:10.149
target using that, um, wind drift

711
00:32:10.197 --> 00:32:13.105
indicator, start actuallynna jump out

712
00:32:13.485 --> 00:32:16.453
and then we're gonna climb back up as quick as we can to get a second set

713
00:32:16.469 --> 00:32:19.421
of flares out. So our goal is to make this whole thing illuminate

714
00:32:19.453 --> 00:32:22.429
for them. There's illumination in the sky when

715
00:32:22.437 --> 00:32:25.101
they jump and there's illumination in the sky when they

716
00:32:25.133 --> 00:32:27.845
land. We need two sets of flares. Justus. They don't

717
00:32:27.885 --> 00:32:30.555
last. Like one set wouldn't last the entire time

718
00:32:30.685 --> 00:32:32.995
###mm uh, that was the procedure we used.

719
00:32:34.215 --> 00:32:36.687
We didn't really make anything up with

720
00:32:36.711 --> 00:32:39.503
that. We did it the same way we would do it. We would do

721
00:32:39.519 --> 00:32:42.395
it when we train multiple times a week

722
00:32:42.695 --> 00:32:45.607
doing what we call flarex. It's like a night trainer. The

723
00:32:45.631 --> 00:32:48.351
only difference was now there's the high

724
00:32:48.383 --> 00:32:51.231
winds and now we're going through

725
00:32:51.263 --> 00:32:54.167
layers of clouds as we're dropping

726
00:32:54.191 --> 00:32:55.670
the flares. Which isn't ideal as well.

727
00:32:55.670 --> 00:32:58.623
>> Bryan: M yeah. Like, uh, are the flares still effective when

728
00:32:58.639 --> 00:33:00.315
there's a bunch of layers?

729
00:33:01.425 --> 00:33:03.257
>> Vince C. Benoit: Yeah. Cause the wind just pushed them.

730
00:33:03.321 --> 00:33:06.289
>> Bryan Morrison: So that's the thing too. Um, when the

731
00:33:06.297 --> 00:33:09.217
winds are that high, we have to drop.

732
00:33:09.321 --> 00:33:12.201
The idea is that we drop the flares and kind of at the

733
00:33:12.233 --> 00:33:14.685
halfway burn time through the flares, they're over the target.

734
00:33:15.265 --> 00:33:18.097
So when they first go out of the plane when it

735
00:33:18.121 --> 00:33:20.913
winds that high, they're like three miles upwind of the target.

736
00:33:21.089 --> 00:33:23.993
Which I think when we got the second set out, they were landing

737
00:33:24.129 --> 00:33:26.689
and yeah, there was a second set of flares, but they were like

738
00:33:26.777 --> 00:33:29.040
miles. So it's a challenge.

739
00:33:29.040 --> 00:33:31.937
>> Bryan: Um, so in those conditions, not only are they far away,

740
00:33:31.961 --> 00:33:34.395
but they could that have layers of cloud between them?

741
00:33:34.695 --> 00:33:37.695
>> Bryan Morrison: Yeah, I tried to mitigate it as best I could. We dropped them lower than we normally

742
00:33:37.735 --> 00:33:40.440
would, but at the same time it's um,

743
00:33:41.295 --> 00:33:42.007
a challenge.

744
00:33:42.071 --> 00:33:42.767
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

745
00:33:42.951 --> 00:33:45.375
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746
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762
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763
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>> Bryan: So Vince, tell me about the jump from your perspective. What was it

764
00:34:35.751 --> 00:34:36.315
like?

765
00:34:37.040 --> 00:34:40.007
>> Vince C. Benoit: Uh, well, I let this stick. Depending on the

766
00:34:40.031 --> 00:34:42.871
scenario, sometimes the team lead. Will I like to go first or

767
00:34:42.903 --> 00:34:45.800
last? Uh, in that case I wanted to lead uh,

768
00:34:46.143 --> 00:34:48.991
the guys in. Just to give you

769
00:34:49.023 --> 00:34:51.951
an idea. When we do ey win jump because we

770
00:34:51.983 --> 00:34:54.431
train here in Shadoh all the time and do night

771
00:34:54.463 --> 00:34:57.271
jump normally if I have a

772
00:34:57.343 --> 00:34:59.895
30 second count from the target to my exit

773
00:34:59.935 --> 00:35:02.795
point. It's windy

774
00:35:03.455 --> 00:35:06.063
that night and I'm talking about like

775
00:35:06.119 --> 00:35:08.967
3,000ft or 3,500. That night

776
00:35:08.991 --> 00:35:11.655
we jump from two and add over a minute

777
00:35:11.695 --> 00:35:12.159
count.

778
00:35:12.287 --> 00:35:12.955
>> Jason Shaw: Wow.

779
00:35:13.295 --> 00:35:15.383
>> Vince C. Benoit: So picture I don't know.

780
00:35:15.399 --> 00:35:18.383
>> Bryan: In distance you had to be a minute upwind from the

781
00:35:18.399 --> 00:35:21.015
target so that the wind would blow you back towards the target.

782
00:35:21.095 --> 00:35:21.459
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

783
00:35:21.527 --> 00:35:24.347
>> Bryan Morrison: And we're flying at 120 knots during all

784
00:35:24.371 --> 00:35:27.267
that. So you can do the math. Figure out how far up

785
00:35:27.291 --> 00:35:30.243
when they're leaving the plane to make it back to the target. And we're trying

786
00:35:30.259 --> 00:35:32.691
to get flares over them at that same

787
00:35:32.723 --> 00:35:33.295
point.

788
00:35:34.275 --> 00:35:37.075
>> Vince C. Benoit: So we jumped over a minute

789
00:35:37.115 --> 00:35:40.003
past um and we mentioned there's a

790
00:35:40.019 --> 00:35:42.931
blizzard from 0 to 1,000. Right. So that target,

791
00:35:43.003 --> 00:35:45.571
you could see it when you flew right over top because you can see

792
00:35:45.603 --> 00:35:46.660
through snow.

793
00:35:46.660 --> 00:35:47.120
>> Jason Shaw: Mhm.

794
00:35:47.725 --> 00:35:50.717
>> Vince C. Benoit: But you cant see it at a distance. So I got

795
00:35:50.741 --> 00:35:53.261
out. I knew because of my

796
00:35:53.293 --> 00:35:56.065
procedure, I knew my flare was on my right

797
00:35:56.645 --> 00:35:58.865
and I knew I was going in the right direction.

798
00:35:59.765 --> 00:36:02.733
But I lost the target. Um, I'BE honest with you, I lost the

799
00:36:02.749 --> 00:36:05.305
target and I was probably for,

800
00:36:05.605 --> 00:36:08.461
you know, for 10, 15 seconds,

801
00:36:08.493 --> 00:36:11.125
maybe 30. That was a long time in my head

802
00:36:11.245 --> 00:36:13.761
because there's nothing

803
00:36:13.873 --> 00:36:16.737
y. It's arctic, it's in the dark, there's not a

804
00:36:16.761 --> 00:36:19.525
single light. But I got it.

805
00:36:20.280 --> 00:36:22.849
Uh, and then that's just

806
00:36:22.937 --> 00:36:25.841
experience going into play. I just burned some altitude as

807
00:36:25.873 --> 00:36:28.321
fast as I could knowing

808
00:36:28.393 --> 00:36:31.129
that I would le backward into target

809
00:36:31.257 --> 00:36:34.137
better or parachute depending on the way you load it. It's like

810
00:36:34.161 --> 00:36:37.137
a plane. You want to land to win all the time. You

811
00:36:37.161 --> 00:36:39.605
want to point your nose in the win.

812
00:36:40.115 --> 00:36:42.331
It goes about 25kn forward speed

813
00:36:42.363 --> 00:36:43.135
depending.

814
00:36:43.475 --> 00:36:44.695
>> Bryan Morrison: How you load it.

815
00:36:45.115 --> 00:36:48.067
>> Vince C. Benoit: That night were kind of heavy. So we would give you a

816
00:36:48.091 --> 00:36:50.815
full 25 knot

817
00:36:51.195 --> 00:36:53.295
point speed. So

818
00:36:55.235 --> 00:36:57.955
if I point it in a 25 knot

819
00:36:57.995 --> 00:36:59.971
win, I would go straight down if that makes sense.

820
00:37:00.003 --> 00:37:02.243
>> Bryan: Yeah. Because it moves you forward at 25 knots.

821
00:37:02.299 --> 00:37:02.635
>> Vince C. Benoit: That's right.

822
00:37:02.675 --> 00:37:03.531
>> Bryan: If in still there.

823
00:37:03.603 --> 00:37:06.599
>> Vince C. Benoit: That's right. Well if it's 15kn I know I'm going to

824
00:37:06.607 --> 00:37:09.183
land backward very fast

825
00:37:09.359 --> 00:37:11.695
and I Brief my guys for it because

826
00:37:11.775 --> 00:37:14.711
we not uh, to go into technical details with

827
00:37:14.743 --> 00:37:17.335
parachuting. I can shop my

828
00:37:17.375 --> 00:37:18.995
main parachute

829
00:37:19.735 --> 00:37:22.575
but uh, there's a system

830
00:37:22.615 --> 00:37:25.607
that connects to that main that

831
00:37:25.631 --> 00:37:28.631
will deploy your reserve automatically and

832
00:37:28.663 --> 00:37:31.607
I win. You want to disconnect that. As soon as you have a good

833
00:37:31.631 --> 00:37:34.547
parach shute over top of you, you disconnect that. Because

834
00:37:34.571 --> 00:37:37.531
if you need to chop it, you don't want your reserve

835
00:37:37.563 --> 00:37:40.267
to deploy. And then now you're reserved to drag you across the

836
00:37:40.291 --> 00:37:42.940
tundra at 50 knots. So

837
00:37:42.940 --> 00:37:45.575
uh, that's what we did. I found the target

838
00:37:45.995 --> 00:37:48.691
and we landed within

839
00:37:48.763 --> 00:37:50.455
200ft of the plane,

840
00:37:52.100 --> 00:37:54.947
uh, perfectly. As soon as we touched the ground we

841
00:37:54.971 --> 00:37:57.603
cut that presset away. We didn't want to get dragged

842
00:37:57.659 --> 00:38:00.115
because you know from the air it looks

843
00:38:00.455 --> 00:38:03.383
the tundra in the winter, uh, especially that time of the

844
00:38:03.399 --> 00:38:06.195
year, it looks like salt and pepper.

845
00:38:06.935 --> 00:38:09.927
Salt is good to land on pepper rock and the

846
00:38:09.951 --> 00:38:12.943
rocks are pretty big. So you don't want to

847
00:38:12.959 --> 00:38:15.155
get dragged across the tundra on those rocks.

848
00:38:15.770 --> 00:38:18.247
Um, so yeah, no, it

849
00:38:18.271 --> 00:38:20.355
went, went pretty well.

850
00:38:21.375 --> 00:38:22.915
>> Bryan: That sounds crazy.

851
00:38:25.385 --> 00:38:28.365
So uh, what did you see when you landed at the crash site?

852
00:38:28.825 --> 00:38:31.210
>> Vince C. Benoit: Well, so first thing I uh,

853
00:38:31.425 --> 00:38:34.240
always get in touch with the plane. Uh,

854
00:38:35.105 --> 00:38:38.017
so Jay was pretty happy to hear my

855
00:38:38.041 --> 00:38:40.705
voice. And I recall saying it's pretty sporty

856
00:38:40.745 --> 00:38:43.601
here. And when I said that it's because the

857
00:38:43.633 --> 00:38:45.217
full reality of it kind of.

858
00:38:45.241 --> 00:38:47.993
>> Bryan Morrison: Hits you and you could hear on the radio he was in a

859
00:38:48.009 --> 00:38:48.449
blizzard.

860
00:38:48.537 --> 00:38:49.137
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

861
00:38:49.281 --> 00:38:52.179
>> Bryan: What's that like for you to hear them once they get to

862
00:38:52.187 --> 00:38:52.931
the ground?

863
00:38:53.123 --> 00:38:56.067
>> Bryan Morrison: Once they're out, we lose them pretty quick at

864
00:38:56.091 --> 00:38:58.611
night because we immediately start maneuvering for the flares. So they're just

865
00:38:58.643 --> 00:39:01.459
gone. And really the next thing is we're just

866
00:39:01.467 --> 00:39:04.451
gonna orbit overhead continuing to provide flares until we hear

867
00:39:04.483 --> 00:39:06.975
from them. So that jump.

868
00:39:07.315 --> 00:39:10.255
Yeah, it's just open. Worked out,

869
00:39:10.755 --> 00:39:13.635
just waiting and hearing like. And I remember

870
00:39:13.675 --> 00:39:16.333
like that little bit of like kind of

871
00:39:16.459 --> 00:39:18.945
comedy or just upbeat in his

872
00:39:18.985 --> 00:39:21.617
voice. You can read a lot from

873
00:39:21.641 --> 00:39:24.609
that and that kind of set for me

874
00:39:24.657 --> 00:39:27.617
the second phase of the mission. I was just like oh, thank God that worked

875
00:39:27.641 --> 00:39:29.850
out. We made the right decision and um,

876
00:39:30.385 --> 00:39:31.765
we went forward from there.

877
00:39:32.865 --> 00:39:35.309
>> Vince C. Benoit: So we landed 100ft,

878
00:39:35.452 --> 00:39:38.409
200ft behind the plane, uh, so towards

879
00:39:38.457 --> 00:39:40.805
the tail. And that plane was

880
00:39:41.385 --> 00:39:43.799
stuck on top of a, I call it 30 foot

881
00:39:43.937 --> 00:39:46.415
cliff snow bank.

882
00:39:46.795 --> 00:39:49.699
And so the flares were dispatch up wind

883
00:39:49.787 --> 00:39:52.315
of that plane. And I remember

884
00:39:52.395 --> 00:39:55.283
looking in the blizzard, there's that plane

885
00:39:55.339 --> 00:39:57.935
on top, there's a tent that looks like

886
00:39:58.795 --> 00:40:01.779
a uh, Scene from Everest. It was just pinned down by the wind

887
00:40:01.827 --> 00:40:03.211
because they were on top of that cliff.

888
00:40:03.283 --> 00:40:04.251
>> Jason Shaw: Oh, yeah.

889
00:40:04.443 --> 00:40:07.379
>> Vince C. Benoit: And with the flare shadow, it looked pretty

890
00:40:07.507 --> 00:40:10.307
grim and intense. That hits me. That hit

891
00:40:10.331 --> 00:40:13.327
me. I was like, oh, that's, uh, something you don't

892
00:40:13.351 --> 00:40:16.287
see every day. Right. So we approached

893
00:40:16.311 --> 00:40:19.135
the scene, we got together, everybody was safe, we grabbed their gear and

894
00:40:19.175 --> 00:40:22.063
start approaching the scene. And then we checked

895
00:40:22.079 --> 00:40:24.911
in with the people in the tent. Uh, initially there were six

896
00:40:24.943 --> 00:40:27.735
in the tent and then four

897
00:40:27.775 --> 00:40:30.727
were stuck in the plane still. Uh, so

898
00:40:30.751 --> 00:40:33.715
we just checked in with them initially.

899
00:40:33.930 --> 00:40:36.903
Um, and then I left one team

900
00:40:36.959 --> 00:40:39.387
member at the tent and j.

901
00:40:39.531 --> 00:40:42.507
Alex. So Matt stayed at the tent and Alex

902
00:40:42.531 --> 00:40:44.723
and I went, uh, to the plane.

903
00:40:44.859 --> 00:40:47.667
>> Bryan: So when you say they were stuck in the plane, like they were too injured to

904
00:40:47.691 --> 00:40:48.859
move type thing.

905
00:40:49.027 --> 00:40:50.455
>> Vince C. Benoit: Two of them were

906
00:40:51.355 --> 00:40:54.307
injured. So the

907
00:40:54.331 --> 00:40:57.163
plan, the way it landed is they saw that

908
00:40:57.219 --> 00:41:00.059
snowbank last second, they

909
00:41:00.107 --> 00:41:02.415
flared because they were configured to land.

910
00:41:03.115 --> 00:41:05.867
And m. I'm not a pilot and I don't want to

911
00:41:05.891 --> 00:41:08.635
talk too much in detail about how it happened,

912
00:41:08.675 --> 00:41:11.403
but the short of it is they saw it last minute. They

913
00:41:11.459 --> 00:41:14.331
flared, I think, and

914
00:41:14.363 --> 00:41:16.867
they kind of belied. They

915
00:41:16.891 --> 00:41:19.819
hit the front key and they

916
00:41:19.867 --> 00:41:21.795
belied in that snow and stopped right there.

917
00:41:21.875 --> 00:41:22.627
>> Jason Shaw: Okay.

918
00:41:22.811 --> 00:41:25.627
>> Vince C. Benoit: In front of it. Remember the rock, the big boulders?

919
00:41:25.771 --> 00:41:28.747
There's boulders. Square boulders the size of a couch in front

920
00:41:28.771 --> 00:41:29.059
of it.

921
00:41:29.107 --> 00:41:29.661
>> Jason Shaw: Oh, wow.

922
00:41:29.763 --> 00:41:32.725
>> Vince C. Benoit: So a feet higher, different outcome.

923
00:41:33.385 --> 00:41:35.805
A feet lower, different outcome.

924
00:41:38.025 --> 00:41:40.485
Although unfortunate, I think they reacted

925
00:41:40.985 --> 00:41:42.805
appropriately in time,

926
00:41:43.460 --> 00:41:45.649
uh, and kind of save

927
00:41:45.697 --> 00:41:48.353
everybody. But picture that plane just

928
00:41:48.409 --> 00:41:51.401
hitting art and bellying everybody. It

929
00:41:51.433 --> 00:41:54.113
hit art pretty hard in there. Everybody had back

930
00:41:54.169 --> 00:41:54.577
issue.

931
00:41:54.681 --> 00:41:55.525
>> Jason Shaw: Oh, yeah.

932
00:41:55.560 --> 00:41:58.213
>> Vince C. Benoit: Um, if you compound that

933
00:41:58.269 --> 00:42:00.505
to pree. Existing medical conditions

934
00:42:02.045 --> 00:42:04.533
and, uh, eight hours of being

935
00:42:04.669 --> 00:42:06.465
sitting in a colal plane,

936
00:42:08.085 --> 00:42:10.745
that was kind of the

937
00:42:11.205 --> 00:42:14.181
medical issue, I guess. I don't want to talk too much in detail about it.

938
00:42:14.253 --> 00:42:16.125
>> Bryan: We have to respect, uh, their privacy.

939
00:42:16.245 --> 00:42:19.157
>> Vince C. Benoit: Yeah, but they were hurt and

940
00:42:19.181 --> 00:42:21.240
they were stuck in there. M.

941
00:42:21.320 --> 00:42:23.805
Um, sold. Two of them,

942
00:42:24.905 --> 00:42:27.441
the pilot and another member

943
00:42:27.513 --> 00:42:29.725
was in there to attend

944
00:42:30.305 --> 00:42:33.161
and help them. Six other

945
00:42:33.273 --> 00:42:36.085
were in the tent, all with minors and minor injuries.

946
00:42:36.710 --> 00:42:39.225
>> Bryan: Um, was there any heat source in the plane or anything?

947
00:42:39.265 --> 00:42:41.990
>> Vince C. Benoit: Or did they just have blankets and candles? Okay,

948
00:42:41.990 --> 00:42:44.785
um, the thing is, that plane was on top of that

949
00:42:44.825 --> 00:42:45.529
30 foot cliff.

950
00:42:45.577 --> 00:42:46.793
>> Bryan: So the wind is just.

951
00:42:46.929 --> 00:42:49.655
>> Vince C. Benoit: The wind is pounding it and

952
00:42:49.775 --> 00:42:52.703
the tail is dangling off the edge like you would see in

953
00:42:52.719 --> 00:42:55.671
a movie. So nobody wanted to go near

954
00:42:55.703 --> 00:42:56.175
the tail.

955
00:42:56.255 --> 00:42:56.799
>> Jason Shaw: Yah.

956
00:42:56.927 --> 00:42:59.115
>> Vince C. Benoit: So they are blankets. The thing is,

957
00:42:59.935 --> 00:43:02.530
I know we're always being hard on, um,

958
00:43:02.623 --> 00:43:05.551
pilots because you Guys don't like to dress heavy in the cockpit,

959
00:43:05.703 --> 00:43:06.111
right?

960
00:43:06.183 --> 00:43:06.835
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

961
00:43:07.670 --> 00:43:10.195
>> Vince C. Benoit: Uh, they were all addressed to go work.

962
00:43:11.095 --> 00:43:13.647
The plan was for that plane to land on la de

963
00:43:13.671 --> 00:43:16.243
GR and offload them into Arctic to

964
00:43:16.259 --> 00:43:19.107
work. So they're all addressed with they were.

965
00:43:19.131 --> 00:43:20.627
>> Bryan: Dressed for the Arctic heavy gear.

966
00:43:20.731 --> 00:43:23.643
>> Vince C. Benoit: And that's what saved their life really. Uh, because they

967
00:43:23.659 --> 00:43:26.163
were equipped. Because imagine if all that

968
00:43:26.299 --> 00:43:29.267
equipment was in suitcase in the tail that they can't access.

969
00:43:29.331 --> 00:43:29.975
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

970
00:43:30.315 --> 00:43:31.451
>> Vince C. Benoit: Different outcome for sure.

971
00:43:31.523 --> 00:43:32.615
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah, for sure.

972
00:43:33.235 --> 00:43:36.179
>> Bryan: What was morale like on the ground when you arrived? I imagine they

973
00:43:36.187 --> 00:43:37.355
were pretty happy to see you.

974
00:43:37.475 --> 00:43:40.275
>> Vince C. Benoit: They were happy, but I was the Debbie Donner very, very

975
00:43:40.315 --> 00:43:40.683
fast.

976
00:43:40.779 --> 00:43:41.291
>> Jason Shaw: Oh yeah.

977
00:43:41.363 --> 00:43:44.227
>> Vince C. Benoit: It's like, uh, hey, we're here. Oh,

978
00:43:44.371 --> 00:43:47.337
we're happy to see you. But I'm like, we're going to spend the

979
00:43:47.361 --> 00:43:50.097
night here. There's no rescue till the morning, so

980
00:43:50.281 --> 00:43:52.725
don't stop fighting right now. That

981
00:43:53.185 --> 00:43:56.085
was pretty blunt with that.

982
00:43:56.120 --> 00:43:58.593
Um, pretty honest right off the

983
00:43:58.609 --> 00:44:01.481
hop. Sartekss are never going to promise you something. They're

984
00:44:01.513 --> 00:44:04.497
never going to lightie uh to you for stuff

985
00:44:04.521 --> 00:44:06.680
like that. Uh, so I told him,

986
00:44:06.680 --> 00:44:09.457
uh, you'll be here till the

987
00:44:09.481 --> 00:44:11.205
morning. You got to keep fighting.

988
00:44:11.805 --> 00:44:14.693
And I think it hit them, but at

989
00:44:14.709 --> 00:44:16.225
least they knew what to expect.

990
00:44:18.085 --> 00:44:20.989
>> Bryan: So Jason, while the team's jumping in and evaluating the scene, what

991
00:44:20.997 --> 00:44:23.853
are you folks up in the aircraft doing now? What kind of updates are

992
00:44:23.869 --> 00:44:25.985
you receiving and what do you do with that information?

993
00:44:26.285 --> 00:44:29.213
>> Bryan Morrison: Well, initially we're just trying to try

994
00:44:29.229 --> 00:44:32.173
to let them do their job. He's gon toa give me updates as he has them. I

995
00:44:32.189 --> 00:44:35.069
know he has to dig out the radio from his jacket. It s

996
00:44:35.077 --> 00:44:38.020
not just like it's in his hand at all times. So, um,

997
00:44:38.020 --> 00:44:40.947
JRCC is asking me for updates. I pass

998
00:44:40.971 --> 00:44:43.779
that on and I know that they're working on that, trying to get the

999
00:44:43.787 --> 00:44:46.771
updates. Uh, we ve kind of switch into like a support role

1000
00:44:46.803 --> 00:44:49.667
a little bit. We know that we're going to have the follow on equipment drops

1001
00:44:49.811 --> 00:44:52.735
that's been rigged by the Sartex and Loadmaster on the way up.

1002
00:44:53.315 --> 00:44:56.243
We're, uh, kind of starting to get set up for that. We're getting the plane

1003
00:44:56.339 --> 00:44:59.227
position in an orbit where we're going to

1004
00:44:59.291 --> 00:45:01.575
get ready to drop the uh, follow on bundles

1005
00:45:02.355 --> 00:45:05.253
around the same time. So we

1006
00:45:05.269 --> 00:45:08.269
had been told in the, um, tasking that there was going to

1007
00:45:08.277 --> 00:45:11.157
be a team of mine rescue guys from the Diavic

1008
00:45:11.181 --> 00:45:13.941
Diamond Mine coming down to snowmobiles at some point.

1009
00:45:14.093 --> 00:45:16.957
And I had a different radio frequency for them, had that in

1010
00:45:16.981 --> 00:45:19.945
one radio. And then I had the radio with the satex and the other

1011
00:45:20.405 --> 00:45:23.285
and around that time before we started doing

1012
00:45:23.405 --> 00:45:26.309
the bundles and after they jumped I just heard those guys come up on

1013
00:45:26.317 --> 00:45:28.685
the radio and they hey huc

1014
00:45:28.725 --> 00:45:31.505
overhead. Uh, we're from a diabic diamond mine.

1015
00:45:31.865 --> 00:45:34.457
So given the terrain they were working their way down

1016
00:45:34.481 --> 00:45:37.385
there but they couldn't actually see the crash. They

1017
00:45:37.425 --> 00:45:39.805
just due to the weather and the undulating terrain.

1018
00:45:40.905 --> 00:45:43.889
So we would kind of fly over where the target

1019
00:45:43.937 --> 00:45:46.857
was and I would tell them as we're in the turn we're over top of the target

1020
00:45:46.921 --> 00:45:49.785
now uh, that would d be enough for them to kind of point in that

1021
00:45:49.825 --> 00:45:52.365
direction a little bit. But at some point that just wasn't enough.

1022
00:45:52.945 --> 00:45:55.777
I um, think this part I'm a little uncle. I can't quite remember. I

1023
00:45:55.801 --> 00:45:58.683
think maybe one of the satehs heard what was going on

1024
00:45:58.819 --> 00:46:01.587
and on his own just fired up a couple flares. I think it might have been

1025
00:46:01.611 --> 00:46:04.507
Matt. And that was that last little link like hey

1026
00:46:04.531 --> 00:46:07.355
we see the flares and they just married up. Okay, so

1027
00:46:07.475 --> 00:46:10.283
they arrived there but

1028
00:46:10.299 --> 00:46:13.147
yeah, kind of big picture for the mission at that

1029
00:46:13.171 --> 00:46:15.895
point we just switch into an overhead.

1030
00:46:16.235 --> 00:46:18.535
We're in a support role, whatever they need.

1031
00:46:18.955 --> 00:46:21.843
>> Bryan: So Vince, once you located all the survivors, what comes next in

1032
00:46:21.859 --> 00:46:23.055
terms of treating them?

1033
00:46:23.840 --> 00:46:26.807
>> Vince C. Benoit: Uh, we I guess to

1034
00:46:26.831 --> 00:46:29.275
circle back to my teacher PC training.

1035
00:46:29.460 --> 00:46:31.983
Uh, what we learn on under TC

1036
00:46:31.999 --> 00:46:34.911
is it's combat care, combat treatment

1037
00:46:35.023 --> 00:46:37.995
and a big part of it is care under fire.

1038
00:46:39.215 --> 00:46:42.071
You don't do anything medically fancy

1039
00:46:42.143 --> 00:46:45.127
when you're getting shot at. Well now fortunately

1040
00:46:45.191 --> 00:46:48.063
nobody shoot at me anymore but

1041
00:46:48.079 --> 00:46:50.617
I still have threat. Being in

1042
00:46:50.641 --> 00:46:53.577
anarctic blizzard is one of them. There's

1043
00:46:53.681 --> 00:46:56.609
nothing medical, nothing fancy medical that's going toa

1044
00:46:56.617 --> 00:46:58.925
happen before we got shelter in place.

1045
00:46:59.905 --> 00:47:02.685
So that's when I call in for support

1046
00:47:03.225 --> 00:47:06.145
for equipment drop with the goal

1047
00:47:06.185 --> 00:47:09.020
of putting everybody into shelter uh,

1048
00:47:09.020 --> 00:47:11.045
so we can start doing medicine.

1049
00:47:11.945 --> 00:47:14.757
Then what happened at that point is

1050
00:47:14.921 --> 00:47:16.985
the uh, po

1051
00:47:17.685 --> 00:47:20.145
person rescue team from the min joined

1052
00:47:21.125 --> 00:47:24.117
and I was a bit of an awkward conversation because

1053
00:47:24.141 --> 00:47:26.877
it didn't comprehend. We just jumped from the plane

1054
00:47:27.061 --> 00:47:29.957
so we had to like take a minute

1055
00:47:30.141 --> 00:47:32.997
explain and like they told them, they told us

1056
00:47:33.021 --> 00:47:35.385
how cool they think that is. I was like cool

1057
00:47:36.085 --> 00:47:38.225
but we got a job to do. Re like okay,

1058
00:47:38.845 --> 00:47:41.425
you're the boss. Tell us what you want.

1059
00:47:42.125 --> 00:47:44.545
Perfect. So now I have four

1060
00:47:45.045 --> 00:47:47.869
hard working men with two snowmobile

1061
00:47:47.917 --> 00:47:50.709
that I can use. Circle back to

1062
00:47:50.797 --> 00:47:53.741
previous experience now use every single asset

1063
00:47:53.773 --> 00:47:56.717
or piece of gear you can to execute the mission. So

1064
00:47:56.741 --> 00:47:59.637
big concern of Mine was that dangling plane with

1065
00:47:59.661 --> 00:48:02.005
four people in it. So they got to work

1066
00:48:02.125 --> 00:48:04.901
intoing that, just

1067
00:48:04.973 --> 00:48:07.781
tying it down in the snow to one snowmobile. So now I

1068
00:48:07.813 --> 00:48:10.105
lost one snowmobile, But I was sure that,

1069
00:48:11.100 --> 00:48:13.881
uh, the plane wouldn't move. And then it was so

1070
00:48:13.913 --> 00:48:16.785
windy that I wanted to have another snowmobile on

1071
00:48:16.825 --> 00:48:19.753
standby to go recover those bundles. So I

1072
00:48:19.769 --> 00:48:22.633
kind instruct them that

1073
00:48:22.689 --> 00:48:25.593
and give them the intent. And at the same time, j was setting up

1074
00:48:25.609 --> 00:48:26.193
to do drop.

1075
00:48:26.289 --> 00:48:28.873
>> Bryan: Okay. And that really brings me to my next question, which

1076
00:48:28.889 --> 00:48:31.817
is that after the initial jump, uh, the crew of the herr

1077
00:48:31.841 --> 00:48:34.405
conducted several drops. Can you tell us about those?

1078
00:48:34.705 --> 00:48:37.547
>> Bryan Morrison: Yeah. So we had three different bundles. Um, we had the

1079
00:48:37.571 --> 00:48:40.067
hypothermia gear, the tents and

1080
00:48:40.171 --> 00:48:43.011
toboggan. So, yeah, really at that

1081
00:48:43.043 --> 00:48:45.291
point, the weather kind of continued to

1082
00:48:45.323 --> 00:48:46.323
deteriorate.

1083
00:48:46.499 --> 00:48:47.775
>> Bryan: Oh, it was getting worse.

1084
00:48:48.155 --> 00:48:51.019
>> Bryan Morrison: Yeah, the viz reduced a bit, and the wind shear in the

1085
00:48:51.027 --> 00:48:53.651
lower levels was getting quite a bit worse. So

1086
00:48:53.803 --> 00:48:56.211
we dropped, uh, a second disco ball, as we called

1087
00:48:56.243 --> 00:48:59.203
it. And that's going to be how I'm going to fly. That

1088
00:48:59.219 --> 00:49:02.075
is, we dropped the disco ball. Then I'mnn orbit

1089
00:49:02.115 --> 00:49:05.091
around and then kind of line up on final. So I see the disco

1090
00:49:05.123 --> 00:49:07.677
ball, then I see the lights from the target

1091
00:49:07.851 --> 00:49:10.457
and just kind of like lining those two things up. So

1092
00:49:10.641 --> 00:49:13.485
down to six or 700ft. In that case,

1093
00:49:13.890 --> 00:49:16.881
um, we can do this under flare. But we opted not to just because I had

1094
00:49:16.913 --> 00:49:19.873
enough at everything I needed. And it would have been faster just to

1095
00:49:19.889 --> 00:49:22.405
kind of do three quick, uh, drops.

1096
00:49:22.905 --> 00:49:25.881
And that's what we did. We dropped. I can't remember the order we dropped them, and I think we dropped

1097
00:49:25.913 --> 00:49:28.729
to bog and last maybe. Um, but Vince was on the ground

1098
00:49:28.817 --> 00:49:31.513
communicating with us. He basically added the

1099
00:49:31.529 --> 00:49:34.230
DZ setup and the, um,

1100
00:49:34.309 --> 00:49:37.253
snowmobile on standby. So we'drop it, and as soon as

1101
00:49:37.269 --> 00:49:40.253
it came down, he would send him to go get it. We

1102
00:49:40.269 --> 00:49:43.110
come back around and do the next one. The next one. And,

1103
00:49:43.110 --> 00:49:45.909
um, yeah, it all went pretty

1104
00:49:45.917 --> 00:49:48.741
efficient. I think maybe we had a little bit of trouble getting on the first

1105
00:49:48.773 --> 00:49:51.717
one as the wind kind of shipped at a soft target to try it again.

1106
00:49:51.741 --> 00:49:54.589
But we got all three in there. I think there was some

1107
00:49:54.637 --> 00:49:57.261
difficulty, uh, with to bogging on the ground. If

1108
00:49:57.453 --> 00:50:00.301
you guys had to send the guy to retrieve that. Is that the one that

1109
00:50:00.333 --> 00:50:00.717
got away.

1110
00:50:00.741 --> 00:50:03.181
>> Vince C. Benoit: Or it, uh, was one of the hpo gear.

1111
00:50:03.253 --> 00:50:03.885
>> Bryan Morrison: Ho gear. Ye.

1112
00:50:03.925 --> 00:50:04.545
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

1113
00:50:05.605 --> 00:50:07.985
>> Bryan Morrison: But that's it. Then once we do that,

1114
00:50:08.525 --> 00:50:11.157
we kind of climb back, we close up and climb back a little bit, and we're

1115
00:50:11.181 --> 00:50:13.797
just kind of in a support role from there.

1116
00:50:13.821 --> 00:50:15.901
>> Bryan: You're doing comms, relay and that kind of stuff?

1117
00:50:15.973 --> 00:50:18.909
>> Bryan Morrison: Yep. It sounded like that's all the equipment he was going

1118
00:50:18.917 --> 00:50:21.493
to want from us. Uh so we're just overhead

1119
00:50:21.669 --> 00:50:24.669
and planning to stay thereill. Um, we have to get

1120
00:50:24.677 --> 00:50:25.381
out of there for fuel.

1121
00:50:25.453 --> 00:50:26.145
>> Jason Shaw: Okay.

1122
00:50:26.645 --> 00:50:29.597
>> Bryan: So Vince, how important was it to receive those supplies and did

1123
00:50:29.621 --> 00:50:31.309
the heated tents make a big difference?

1124
00:50:31.397 --> 00:50:32.417
>> Vince C. Benoit: Yeah, that was critical.

1125
00:50:32.501 --> 00:50:33.081
>> Jason Shaw: Yeahah.

1126
00:50:33.113 --> 00:50:34.369
>> Bryan: That was like make or break.

1127
00:50:34.457 --> 00:50:35.209
>> Vince C. Benoit: It was make or break.

1128
00:50:35.257 --> 00:50:35.961
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah, yeah.

1129
00:50:36.033 --> 00:50:37.805
>> Vince C. Benoit: All those people were epypotothermic.

1130
00:50:38.520 --> 00:50:41.313
Uh that two person

1131
00:50:41.369 --> 00:50:44.285
tent with six people packed in.

1132
00:50:45.240 --> 00:50:47.161
Uh yeah, I was not making it.

1133
00:50:47.233 --> 00:50:47.885
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

1134
00:50:48.545 --> 00:50:51.545
>> Vince C. Benoit: So the tent I elected

1135
00:50:51.585 --> 00:50:54.097
to bring uh, that we grabbed from

1136
00:50:54.281 --> 00:50:56.977
we fly with two normally I brought an

1137
00:50:57.001 --> 00:50:59.743
extra two was um, their ice fishing pants.

1138
00:50:59.849 --> 00:51:02.739
Oay with no floor they're easy to set.

1139
00:51:02.867 --> 00:51:05.659
They take 30 seconds and they're up. So once

1140
00:51:05.707 --> 00:51:08.555
we got them Matt M, uh was in charge of setting up

1141
00:51:08.595 --> 00:51:11.179
camp and we set up camp downslope of

1142
00:51:11.347 --> 00:51:14.123
the plane so we were sheltered by wind

1143
00:51:14.219 --> 00:51:17.067
from the wind. He started setting up tent and

1144
00:51:17.091 --> 00:51:20.067
then uh, moving those six

1145
00:51:20.080 --> 00:51:22.675
uh people to the tents right away as I was doing

1146
00:51:22.715 --> 00:51:25.611
medicine in the plane. Soeah. We set up

1147
00:51:25.643 --> 00:51:28.467
camp and then yeah

1148
00:51:28.491 --> 00:51:31.411
Alex and I were on the plane doing medicine to stabilize those

1149
00:51:31.443 --> 00:51:33.540
people to bring them out,

1150
00:51:33.540 --> 00:51:36.091
uh, um, out of the Twin

1151
00:51:36.123 --> 00:51:38.819
Otter. Uh, which was quite

1152
00:51:38.867 --> 00:51:41.763
challenging. Uh, if you ever flew on a

1153
00:51:41.779 --> 00:51:44.635
Twin Otter, uh the nice

1154
00:51:44.715 --> 00:51:47.227
convenient exit door is on the

1155
00:51:47.251 --> 00:51:50.203
tail so that wasn't an option. Uh, so we had

1156
00:51:50.219 --> 00:51:52.215
to go through the emergency exit.

1157
00:51:53.255 --> 00:51:54.463
That was challenging.

1158
00:51:54.519 --> 00:51:56.615
>> Bryan: Yeah. With two injured people.

1159
00:51:56.775 --> 00:51:59.030
>> Vince C. Benoit: Yeah. And they were bigger, uh

1160
00:51:59.415 --> 00:52:02.315
dudes, uh, hardwork, working men.

1161
00:52:02.470 --> 00:52:05.383
Um, so that

1162
00:52:05.399 --> 00:52:06.023
was a challenge.

1163
00:52:06.079 --> 00:52:07.295
>> Bryan: Yeah, that sounds tough.

1164
00:52:07.335 --> 00:52:10.155
>> Vince C. Benoit: But everybody uh, having

1165
00:52:11.455 --> 00:52:13.355
the mine rescue team

1166
00:52:14.535 --> 00:52:15.751
was very beneficial for.

1167
00:52:15.783 --> 00:52:16.335
>> Bryan: Made a big difference.

1168
00:52:16.375 --> 00:52:17.315
>> Vince C. Benoit: Oh yeah, for sure.

1169
00:52:18.475 --> 00:52:21.107
>> Bryan: So how did the weather affect your plans for getting the

1170
00:52:21.131 --> 00:52:22.575
survivors out of that situation?

1171
00:52:23.795 --> 00:52:26.787
>> Vince C. Benoit: Again we're on top of that ill. We were just

1172
00:52:26.811 --> 00:52:29.211
getting blasted by a very cold wind.

1173
00:52:29.363 --> 00:52:32.139
Fortunately it wasn't too cold. Uh, it was minus

1174
00:52:32.187 --> 00:52:33.771
15 I think air temperature.

1175
00:52:33.883 --> 00:52:36.467
>> Bryan Morrison: Yeah that was another thing. Like there's a few things that lined up like

1176
00:52:36.491 --> 00:52:39.347
that late December in the North Yellow

1177
00:52:39.371 --> 00:52:42.243
Knife. It could easily be minus you know

1178
00:52:42.379 --> 00:52:45.283
40 with the wind chill but luckily that I think it was

1179
00:52:45.299 --> 00:52:47.927
like minus 15 with the wind chills in the minus 20s.

1180
00:52:48.091 --> 00:52:48.835
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

1181
00:52:49.535 --> 00:52:52.255
>> Vince C. Benoit: But still we needed to get everybody out of that

1182
00:52:52.295 --> 00:52:54.820
win. That's why we chose to go down

1183
00:52:54.820 --> 00:52:57.711
uh, downslope at a safe distance from that

1184
00:52:57.743 --> 00:52:58.140
plane.

1185
00:52:58.140 --> 00:52:58.840
>> Jason Shaw: Mhm.

1186
00:52:58.920 --> 00:53:01.435
>> Vince C. Benoit: Um, and once we

1187
00:53:01.815 --> 00:53:03.959
got Everybody there? We were quite comfortable.

1188
00:53:04.047 --> 00:53:04.715
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

1189
00:53:05.815 --> 00:53:08.519
>> Bryan: You mentioned breaking the news to them that they wouldn't be

1190
00:53:08.607 --> 00:53:11.607
leaving until the following morning. What was their reaction when they found that

1191
00:53:11.631 --> 00:53:12.195
out?

1192
00:53:12.735 --> 00:53:13.727
>> Vince C. Benoit: I think they understood.

1193
00:53:13.791 --> 00:53:14.661
>> Jason Shaw: Yeaheah.

1194
00:53:14.783 --> 00:53:17.601
>> Vince C. Benoit: They stay positive, stay positive and

1195
00:53:17.633 --> 00:53:20.550
keep fighting. Because often you see, uh,

1196
00:53:20.905 --> 00:53:23.497
people start to shut down once the riskier come

1197
00:53:23.521 --> 00:53:26.140
in. Uh,

1198
00:53:26.225 --> 00:53:29.185
it's almost like their mechanism is shutting down and then they stop fighting.

1199
00:53:29.225 --> 00:53:32.113
Well, in that case all theyyputothermic and as

1200
00:53:32.129 --> 00:53:35.073
you know, if you're epothothermic, you just stop moving. It's just going to make

1201
00:53:35.089 --> 00:53:35.845
it worse.

1202
00:53:36.830 --> 00:53:39.705
Um, yeah,

1203
00:53:39.745 --> 00:53:41.925
no, they took it well. They understood.

1204
00:53:42.355 --> 00:53:44.811
They'also used to be up

1205
00:53:44.843 --> 00:53:47.683
north. They know how tough it

1206
00:53:47.699 --> 00:53:50.683
is to get uh, things going. And they

1207
00:53:50.699 --> 00:53:52.795
knew that weather condition was a problem too.

1208
00:53:52.915 --> 00:53:55.907
>> Bryan: For sure. That must have been a long night though. How was

1209
00:53:55.931 --> 00:53:57.095
morale through the night?

1210
00:53:57.675 --> 00:54:00.570
>> Vince C. Benoit: It was good. Um,

1211
00:54:00.570 --> 00:54:03.555
so Alex and Matt were in charge of the two

1212
00:54:03.595 --> 00:54:06.531
critical patients and I took

1213
00:54:06.643 --> 00:54:09.425
care of eight.

1214
00:54:09.925 --> 00:54:12.653
The rest of the eight patient, uh, plus

1215
00:54:12.709 --> 00:54:15.141
the uh, four minors in my two

1216
00:54:15.173 --> 00:54:17.545
guys. So there's a lot of

1217
00:54:18.005 --> 00:54:20.265
back and forth from me going to 10 to 10.

1218
00:54:21.885 --> 00:54:24.717
Some of them were able to sleep a bit so we stayed with

1219
00:54:24.741 --> 00:54:27.413
them for 14 hours. Um, so we

1220
00:54:27.469 --> 00:54:30.425
enter a protocol that's called prolonged field care for us

1221
00:54:30.765 --> 00:54:33.381
where ah, I like

1222
00:54:33.413 --> 00:54:36.293
to tell my guys that we move more into

1223
00:54:36.309 --> 00:54:39.265
a nursing practicing than paramedicine.

1224
00:54:39.370 --> 00:54:41.789
Uh, and that's where we're going to enter protocol.

1225
00:54:41.877 --> 00:54:44.509
Antibiotic, uh, for

1226
00:54:44.557 --> 00:54:47.421
trauma, um, make sure everybody is

1227
00:54:47.453 --> 00:54:49.997
fed, uh, we fed everybody

1228
00:54:50.141 --> 00:54:53.029
warm rations, make uh, sure everybody

1229
00:54:53.077 --> 00:54:55.861
drinks enough warm fluid. I was

1230
00:54:55.893 --> 00:54:58.650
able to uh, get some orange, uh,

1231
00:54:59.101 --> 00:55:02.090
juice from the plane crash, um,

1232
00:55:02.090 --> 00:55:05.033
which we bring to a boil. And then people were able to

1233
00:55:05.049 --> 00:55:07.841
drink warm juice, a lot of sugar to get their

1234
00:55:07.873 --> 00:55:10.361
temperature back up right, try to combat

1235
00:55:10.393 --> 00:55:13.385
hypothermia that way. Uh, we had sleeping bags

1236
00:55:13.425 --> 00:55:15.725
out, there's people that were

1237
00:55:16.305 --> 00:55:19.030
sharing bag ande

1238
00:55:19.030 --> 00:55:21.761
um, the focus was trying to get everybody

1239
00:55:21.793 --> 00:55:24.290
warmout the night. And

1240
00:55:24.290 --> 00:55:27.169
uh, there's one patient there

1241
00:55:27.217 --> 00:55:29.985
that uh, that I spent a lot of time chatting

1242
00:55:30.025 --> 00:55:32.900
with. All of them were awesome people.

1243
00:55:32.900 --> 00:55:33.720
>> Jason Shaw: Mhm.

1244
00:55:33.720 --> 00:55:36.113
>> Vince C. Benoit: And again, I know I mentioned it

1245
00:55:36.169 --> 00:55:39.097
earlier, you get

1246
00:55:39.161 --> 00:55:41.969
into situation like this on their end and

1247
00:55:42.057 --> 00:55:45.049
on our end it's situation we're going to remember for

1248
00:55:45.097 --> 00:55:47.593
the rest of your life. And you create

1249
00:55:47.649 --> 00:55:49.645
instant bonding with those people.

1250
00:55:50.345 --> 00:55:53.060
And there's one of them, uh, I'll um,

1251
00:55:53.169 --> 00:55:56.089
name his name, it's Chris, uh, and I still talk to

1252
00:55:56.097 --> 00:55:58.980
him to this day. Uh,

1253
00:55:58.980 --> 00:56:01.560
everybody was stabilized, everything was fine.

1254
00:56:01.560 --> 00:56:02.180
>> Jason Shaw: Ah.

1255
00:56:02.180 --> 00:56:04.445
>> Vince C. Benoit: So we chatted about hunting

1256
00:56:05.385 --> 00:56:08.220
for three hours that night, Uh,

1257
00:56:08.220 --> 00:56:11.120
I, it was three hours because I would

1258
00:56:11.120 --> 00:56:13.737
uh, open comm window withit RCC and call

1259
00:56:13.761 --> 00:56:15.725
him every couple hours.

1260
00:56:16.450 --> 00:56:18.913
Uh, but I chatted onting with Chris and today's

1261
00:56:18.929 --> 00:56:21.085
day, uh, we still

1262
00:56:21.385 --> 00:56:23.785
talking. It was great.

1263
00:56:24.125 --> 00:56:26.597
The mor was good once they got

1264
00:56:26.741 --> 00:56:29.105
rewarmed because they weren't there for eight hours.

1265
00:56:29.925 --> 00:56:32.741
And uh, we all know how it

1266
00:56:32.773 --> 00:56:34.425
feels to be cold and lonely.

1267
00:56:34.890 --> 00:56:37.741
Uh, it's pretty lonely when you

1268
00:56:37.773 --> 00:56:40.733
crash in the arctic and there's nothing around and you don't know what's your

1269
00:56:40.749 --> 00:56:41.053
outcome.

1270
00:56:41.109 --> 00:56:43.605
>> Bryan: Like they were on the ground for eight hours before you got there. You m mean?

1271
00:56:43.645 --> 00:56:44.717
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah. Oh wow.

1272
00:56:44.901 --> 00:56:47.069
>> Vince C. Benoit: Well, by the time they

1273
00:56:47.077 --> 00:56:49.905
were'intent close to eight hours,

1274
00:56:49.970 --> 00:56:52.385
uh, enough to be cold, that's for sure.

1275
00:56:52.685 --> 00:56:54.545
And uh, once we got

1276
00:56:56.165 --> 00:56:58.837
the morale from initial contact

1277
00:56:58.901 --> 00:57:01.725
to the morning for

1278
00:57:01.805 --> 00:57:02.605
two different things.

1279
00:57:02.685 --> 00:57:04.225
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah, I believe it.

1280
00:57:05.205 --> 00:57:08.189
>> Bryan: All right, so Jason, after three to four hours on scene you

1281
00:57:08.197 --> 00:57:10.909
were bingo fuel. Can you explain what that is to the audience

1282
00:57:10.997 --> 00:57:13.301
and tell us how you and the crew got home?

1283
00:57:13.493 --> 00:57:16.249
>> Bryan Morrison: Yeah. In simple terms bingo fuel is a fuel

1284
00:57:16.437 --> 00:57:19.081
number that you now only have enough fuel to

1285
00:57:19.193 --> 00:57:21.913
leave where you currently are and go to your destination

1286
00:57:21.969 --> 00:57:24.897
plus whatever reserves you need. So any sary mission

1287
00:57:24.921 --> 00:57:27.885
we kind of have a couple bingo plans we call them.

1288
00:57:28.260 --> 00:57:31.089
Uh, one option we looked at was going to

1289
00:57:31.097 --> 00:57:34.081
Yellowknife. After there were some complications with that.

1290
00:57:34.113 --> 00:57:37.017
The Runway wasn'in good condition. Plus at some

1291
00:57:37.041 --> 00:57:39.857
point the rest of my crew minus the Sairetex but

1292
00:57:39.881 --> 00:57:42.537
we're going to have to do to crew rest and they weren't going to be ready for

1293
00:57:42.561 --> 00:57:45.447
extraction till like 10cl the next morning. So our

1294
00:57:45.471 --> 00:57:48.270
plane also would have been outside in those conditions as well.

1295
00:57:48.270 --> 00:57:49.130
>> Jason Shaw: Mhm.

1296
00:57:49.130 --> 00:57:52.007
>> Bryan Morrison: So what I opted to do is we around

1297
00:57:52.031 --> 00:57:54.871
that fourar mark we still had enough fuel and

1298
00:57:54.903 --> 00:57:57.807
crew day left to to go to Emonton

1299
00:57:57.831 --> 00:58:00.823
for a fuel stop and make it back to Winnipeg just

1300
00:58:00.839 --> 00:58:03.610
at the end of um, like an 18 hour crew day.

1301
00:58:03.610 --> 00:58:06.567
M so at some point when we're

1302
00:58:06.591 --> 00:58:09.567
overhead we're not really doing much

1303
00:58:09.591 --> 00:58:12.503
for them anymore. He's got his own comms set up, they have everything

1304
00:58:12.559 --> 00:58:14.955
we need. We're just kind of flying around overhead making

1305
00:58:14.995 --> 00:58:17.971
noise and communicate with Vince and

1306
00:58:18.163 --> 00:58:21.123
he's got everything he needs and we're coming up on that number

1307
00:58:21.259 --> 00:58:24.155
that we could still make it back to Winpe through Edmonton. So

1308
00:58:24.155 --> 00:58:27.067
that's what we did. We went to Edmonton, um, but a one hour turn there

1309
00:58:27.091 --> 00:58:29.939
for a fuel stop and ultimately got back to

1310
00:58:29.947 --> 00:58:32.947
Winnipeg around like 6:30am the next

1311
00:58:32.971 --> 00:58:35.819
morning. Oay but in doing that, remember I said we had that

1312
00:58:35.867 --> 00:58:38.835
backup crew. So they had been activated. The backup

1313
00:58:38.875 --> 00:58:41.757
crew was able to and come into the hangar shortly after

1314
00:58:41.781 --> 00:58:44.749
we got there, take the same plane back up to

1315
00:58:44.757 --> 00:58:47.421
Yellowknife and get them out

1316
00:58:47.453 --> 00:58:48.965
of the next morning.

1317
00:58:49.045 --> 00:58:49.745
>> Jason Shaw: Okay.

1318
00:58:50.485 --> 00:58:53.389
>> Bryan: Vince, what did it feel like when the HURC left? Is

1319
00:58:53.397 --> 00:58:56.333
there, like, a big shift in how that feels when you're out in the

1320
00:58:56.349 --> 00:58:57.309
wilderness like that?

1321
00:58:57.397 --> 00:59:00.301
>> Vince C. Benoit: Well, I knew they were going because Jay ran it by

1322
00:59:00.333 --> 00:59:03.197
me a couple times, like, okay, I'm X amount of time

1323
00:59:03.221 --> 00:59:06.110
from bingo. Do you need anything? No, I'm good. Uh,

1324
00:59:06.110 --> 00:59:09.007
okay, I'm running to bingo. You'sure you don't

1325
00:59:09.031 --> 00:59:11.435
need anything else? Because it would have changed its plan.

1326
00:59:12.175 --> 00:59:14.675
No, I think we got this Ann anal. Okay.

1327
00:59:14.975 --> 00:59:17.395
And then it goes quad.

1328
00:59:18.535 --> 00:59:21.463
You don't realize it. Jay mentioned

1329
00:59:21.479 --> 00:59:24.435
it. We're making noise, but that makes a difference because

1330
00:59:25.135 --> 00:59:28.127
I know I got support on my shoulder. If I. Even though I

1331
00:59:28.151 --> 00:59:30.875
can't go back in, I know they're there for me.

1332
00:59:32.515 --> 00:59:35.051
And then it just go quiet. And

1333
00:59:35.083 --> 00:59:36.723
that's a weird feeling.

1334
00:59:36.859 --> 00:59:37.575
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

1335
00:59:37.720 --> 00:59:40.507
>> Vince C. Benoit: Um, but I was on

1336
00:59:40.531 --> 00:59:43.387
comest with rcc and I knew the plan

1337
00:59:43.491 --> 00:59:45.947
and we were set up, so that was all good.

1338
00:59:46.011 --> 00:59:47.339
>> Jason Shaw: But. Yeah.

1339
00:59:47.507 --> 00:59:50.355
>> Bryan: Did, uh, the passengers

1340
00:59:50.435 --> 00:59:52.015
react at all when the Herc left?

1341
00:59:52.755 --> 00:59:55.747
>> Vince C. Benoit: No, I kept everybody updated. I was going tenant to tent,

1342
00:59:55.851 --> 00:59:58.723
and they knew the plan, um, of the

1343
00:59:58.739 --> 01:00:01.651
evac in the morning. They didn't really pay attention. They told me

1344
01:00:01.683 --> 01:00:04.015
that when they heard the hurt coming

1345
01:00:05.035 --> 01:00:07.843
before we jump, they were all relieved with

1346
01:00:07.859 --> 01:00:08.435
that because.

1347
01:00:08.515 --> 01:00:09.363
>> Bryan: Yeah, no kidding.

1348
01:00:09.459 --> 01:00:12.339
>> Vince C. Benoit: The age got a specific sound.

1349
01:00:12.507 --> 01:00:13.307
You can hear it?

1350
01:00:13.371 --> 01:00:13.975
>> Jason Shaw: Yep.

1351
01:00:15.650 --> 01:00:18.163
>> Bryan: Uh, Vince. The next morning, the survivors were rescued by a

1352
01:00:18.179 --> 01:00:20.215
helicopter. What was that process like?

1353
01:00:21.155 --> 01:00:23.695
>> Vince C. Benoit: It was the morning. It was like

1354
01:00:24.035 --> 01:00:26.855
nothing happened. The night before, it was blue skies.

1355
01:00:27.555 --> 01:00:30.155
There's no birds up there, but the birds would have been

1356
01:00:30.195 --> 01:00:32.835
chirping. No wind, perfect

1357
01:00:32.875 --> 01:00:34.935
weather. So everybody

1358
01:00:36.355 --> 01:00:39.323
were, uh, stiff and walked out of the

1359
01:00:39.339 --> 01:00:42.211
tent. And everybody was pretty happy. And I was in. Comes

1360
01:00:42.243 --> 01:00:44.995
with RCC again. And on radio comes

1361
01:00:45.035 --> 01:00:47.295
with D yellows when they came in. And

1362
01:00:48.115 --> 01:00:51.079
we mark three landing sites for them.

1363
01:00:51.167 --> 01:00:53.155
I think they were Eurostar.

1364
01:00:54.495 --> 01:00:55.039
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

1365
01:00:55.127 --> 01:00:55.799
>> Bryan Morrison: Asar. Yeah.

1366
01:00:55.847 --> 01:00:58.075
>> Vince C. Benoit: Asars. Yeah. Smaller helicopters.

1367
01:00:58.630 --> 01:01:01.175
Uh, but three pilots came in. They put the birds

1368
01:01:01.215 --> 01:01:01.795
down.

1369
01:01:03.070 --> 01:01:05.995
Uh, they shut down for some reason,

1370
01:01:07.015 --> 01:01:09.799
probably for safety. And, uh, I don't know. I

1371
01:01:09.807 --> 01:01:12.767
wouldn't shut down the midl of with Arctic and to

1372
01:01:12.791 --> 01:01:15.591
fear that it wouldn't start again. But reloaded.

1373
01:01:15.623 --> 01:01:18.579
Everybody there. Um, I think they made three

1374
01:01:18.627 --> 01:01:19.107
trips.

1375
01:01:19.211 --> 01:01:19.935
>> Jason Shaw: Okay.

1376
01:01:20.875 --> 01:01:23.371
>> Bryan: And they all went to the Dyvik mine from There.

1377
01:01:23.403 --> 01:01:25.935
>> Vince C. Benoit: That's correct. That was about 16 kilometers away.

1378
01:01:26.515 --> 01:01:27.579
Char Tripip.

1379
01:01:27.747 --> 01:01:29.299
>> Bryan: And that's where you guys went as well?

1380
01:01:29.347 --> 01:01:31.410
>> Vince C. Benoit: That's correct, yeah, everybody went there.

1381
01:01:31.410 --> 01:01:34.387
>> Bryan: Uh, what were the conditions of the survivors at that time? If whatever

1382
01:01:34.411 --> 01:01:35.375
you can tell us.

1383
01:01:36.315 --> 01:01:36.963
>> Vince C. Benoit: Good.

1384
01:01:37.099 --> 01:01:37.730
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

1385
01:01:37.730 --> 01:01:40.675
>> Vince C. Benoit: Uh, again, stiff and

1386
01:01:40.755 --> 01:01:43.195
somewhat, you know,

1387
01:01:43.275 --> 01:01:46.203
injured, mostly back

1388
01:01:46.259 --> 01:01:49.030
issues. Um,

1389
01:01:49.030 --> 01:01:51.707
and you're after a big impact

1390
01:01:51.811 --> 01:01:54.659
picture a car accident. People from a whiplash

1391
01:01:54.707 --> 01:01:57.539
get very, very stiff because of the muscle or the

1392
01:01:57.587 --> 01:02:00.331
spasm. Uh, of course we have medication to help

1393
01:02:00.403 --> 01:02:03.050
relieve that. But you add ah,

1394
01:02:03.050 --> 01:02:05.495
mild hypotothermia sleeping on

1395
01:02:05.995 --> 01:02:08.907
in a cold tent, uh, for most of the night

1396
01:02:08.931 --> 01:02:11.907
it doesn't help. So everybody's kind of stiff. But as soon as

1397
01:02:11.931 --> 01:02:14.350
we got work walking and um,

1398
01:02:14.705 --> 01:02:17.665
you know, I put them to task and everybody helped loading the

1399
01:02:17.665 --> 01:02:20.125
helicopter and all that stuff. The people that could,

1400
01:02:20.480 --> 01:02:23.433
um, uh, the pilot, there was a lot of

1401
01:02:23.449 --> 01:02:26.393
help for me. We went uh, together in

1402
01:02:26.409 --> 01:02:29.297
the plane, turn off the ELT and the

1403
01:02:29.321 --> 01:02:32.020
couple tasks like that and uh, everybody's pretty happy uh,

1404
01:02:32.361 --> 01:02:34.925
to get out those tents and get in those shopper.

1405
01:02:35.665 --> 01:02:38.577
>> Bryan: Do you and your team pack up all the tents and supplies that are

1406
01:02:38.601 --> 01:02:40.013
dropped into the rescue site?

1407
01:02:40.169 --> 01:02:43.101
>> Vince C. Benoit: Yeah, we try to as best as

1408
01:02:43.133 --> 01:02:45.960
we can to leave nothing behind. Uh,

1409
01:02:45.965 --> 01:02:48.829
sometimes it doesn't happen depending on the nature of the mission

1410
01:02:48.877 --> 01:02:51.693
or the extraction. In this case, we left nothing

1411
01:02:51.749 --> 01:02:54.693
behind. Not even a piece of garbage

1412
01:02:54.749 --> 01:02:57.717
really. Same with uh, the water jump when we

1413
01:02:57.741 --> 01:03:00.610
did this summer before the fall. Uh,

1414
01:03:00.610 --> 01:03:01.965
we always bring everything back.

1415
01:03:02.045 --> 01:03:02.745
>> Jason Shaw: Okay.

1416
01:03:03.165 --> 01:03:04.261
>> Vince C. Benoit: If we can.

1417
01:03:04.453 --> 01:03:07.453
>> Bryan: So you and the survivors were taken to the

1418
01:03:07.469 --> 01:03:09.785
Diavic mine and then how did you get home?

1419
01:03:10.315 --> 01:03:12.859
>> Vince C. Benoit: Yeah, so the helicopters brought us to the Divic

1420
01:03:12.907 --> 01:03:15.803
mine, uh, where they fed us a

1421
01:03:15.819 --> 01:03:17.787
warm meal. That was great.

1422
01:03:17.851 --> 01:03:18.643
>> Bryan: Must have been nice.

1423
01:03:18.739 --> 01:03:21.590
>> Vince C. Benoit: That was great. And then, uh, Etin did dispatch,

1424
01:03:21.590 --> 01:03:24.450
uh, two of their plane. Uh,

1425
01:03:24.450 --> 01:03:27.270
they loaded all patients in all their gear and then

1426
01:03:27.270 --> 01:03:30.139
uh, we flew straight

1427
01:03:30.150 --> 01:03:31.307
uh, to the a yellownife.

1428
01:03:31.411 --> 01:03:34.003
>> Bryan: Okay, and then you guys were picked up by a

1429
01:03:34.019 --> 01:03:34.667
Herc.

1430
01:03:34.851 --> 01:03:37.219
>> Vince C. Benoit: Yeah, in yellow knife. We were met by uh, ambbleance

1431
01:03:37.307 --> 01:03:40.275
crew, uh, also by family members.

1432
01:03:40.315 --> 01:03:43.035
So ah, that was

1433
01:03:43.075 --> 01:03:44.815
emotional to say the least.

1434
01:03:44.890 --> 01:03:44.920
>> Bryan Morrison: Um.

1435
01:03:46.795 --> 01:03:49.275
>> Vince C. Benoit: But everybody, it was a great day, great

1436
01:03:49.315 --> 01:03:52.211
outcome. Uh, and then yes, the crew that was

1437
01:03:52.243 --> 01:03:55.219
dispatched from Monipe, they were there waiting for

1438
01:03:55.227 --> 01:03:58.050
us. Um,

1439
01:03:58.050 --> 01:04:00.499
so we loaded all our gear into it and then

1440
01:04:00.547 --> 01:04:01.163
rtb.

1441
01:04:01.259 --> 01:04:03.567
>> Bryan: You guys must have been just wiped by that point.

1442
01:04:03.731 --> 01:04:06.431
>> Vince C. Benoit: Yeah, uh, we slept on the way back.

1443
01:04:06.583 --> 01:04:09.247
>> Bryan: Yeah, I believe it. No, you didn't do OJT on the way

1444
01:04:09.271 --> 01:04:09.647
back?

1445
01:04:09.751 --> 01:04:10.395
>> Vince C. Benoit: No.

1446
01:04:11.735 --> 01:04:14.559
>> Bryan: Oh man. Can you both

1447
01:04:14.607 --> 01:04:17.439
speak about the importance of training and teamwork when completing a

1448
01:04:17.447 --> 01:04:18.435
mission like this.

1449
01:04:19.455 --> 01:04:22.183
>> Bryan Morrison: Yeah, I'll just say it's really important. Like we take all the training we

1450
01:04:22.199 --> 01:04:24.527
do, essentially put it into

1451
01:04:24.551 --> 01:04:27.455
practice. And the whole mission from start to finish is

1452
01:04:27.495 --> 01:04:30.419
teamwork. It's uh, you know,

1453
01:04:30.467 --> 01:04:32.815
you're talking to just the two of us. But there was like

1454
01:04:34.155 --> 01:04:36.455
our first officer, Martin Tseum.

1455
01:04:37.235 --> 01:04:40.211
He was pretty new at the time. He did an excellent job. Jeremy

1456
01:04:40.243 --> 01:04:42.415
Simmons, he was our nav

1457
01:04:43.035 --> 01:04:45.979
with Corey Stewart was our lobemaster. Those two guys did all the drops

1458
01:04:46.027 --> 01:04:49.019
after the sa tehs were out. Uh, Dan Tromman, who

1459
01:04:49.027 --> 01:04:51.775
was a flight engineer. So the flight engineer during all this,

1460
01:04:52.155 --> 01:04:55.119
he's responsible for the airplane. So he's making sure that he's

1461
01:04:55.227 --> 01:04:57.847
watching me fly basically and

1462
01:04:57.991 --> 01:05:00.595
making sure all the engines are running properly. So

1463
01:05:00.935 --> 01:05:03.823
he's kind of our safety valve with

1464
01:05:03.839 --> 01:05:06.719
that. And then Vince's guys too, uh, everyone

1465
01:05:06.767 --> 01:05:09.460
did an amazing job. Like Matt and uh,

1466
01:05:09.460 --> 01:05:10.247
Alex.

1467
01:05:10.391 --> 01:05:11.119
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

1468
01:05:11.287 --> 01:05:14.223
>> Bryan Morrison: So yeah, that mission was. It was the

1469
01:05:14.239 --> 01:05:15.755
whole SAR team,

1470
01:05:16.095 --> 01:05:18.623
JRCC, all the techs back at

1471
01:05:18.639 --> 01:05:21.395
435. They got the plane ready to go, the crew,

1472
01:05:21.805 --> 01:05:22.445
everybody.

1473
01:05:22.525 --> 01:05:25.501
>> Vince C. Benoit: Yah, yeah. So on my side,

1474
01:05:25.653 --> 01:05:28.637
a couple things I want to mention is, uh, to go back to

1475
01:05:28.661 --> 01:05:31.501
my teacher, PC time and my training vision as I

1476
01:05:31.573 --> 01:05:34.541
try to recreate realistic training to prepare

1477
01:05:34.573 --> 01:05:37.461
us. But not only for

1478
01:05:37.493 --> 01:05:39.933
Sartex or for me personally, for the entire

1479
01:05:39.989 --> 01:05:42.965
crew. Uh, as we gain more experience.

1480
01:05:43.005 --> 01:05:45.445
I'm sure Jay's doing the same thing. He is going to pass on that

1481
01:05:45.485 --> 01:05:47.917
knowledge. Uh, and to give you an

1482
01:05:47.941 --> 01:05:50.587
example, I could, on a normal training

1483
01:05:50.611 --> 01:05:53.371
day, I could say I want to drop my own

1484
01:05:53.403 --> 01:05:56.299
bundle because that's my job. But I

1485
01:05:56.307 --> 01:05:58.827
don't prepare it enough to help me when I actually need

1486
01:05:58.851 --> 01:06:01.379
it like that mission. So I always

1487
01:06:01.427 --> 01:06:04.095
bring on a normal training day

1488
01:06:04.595 --> 01:06:07.451
a uh, piece of pie for everybody in the crew. Because

1489
01:06:07.563 --> 01:06:09.995
when it comes to a mission like that, everybody needs

1490
01:06:10.035 --> 01:06:11.975
to contribute to it.

1491
01:06:12.875 --> 01:06:15.839
And one thing I think

1492
01:06:15.887 --> 01:06:18.799
Sartehs are good at andway I hope

1493
01:06:18.967 --> 01:06:21.663
we're all very humble in the sense

1494
01:06:21.719 --> 01:06:24.647
that we're doing so much. I'm

1495
01:06:24.671 --> 01:06:27.295
not the best parach Shute is I'm not the best

1496
01:06:27.335 --> 01:06:30.167
mountaineer. I not the best diver. But

1497
01:06:30.191 --> 01:06:32.687
we're trying hard to be the best. And

1498
01:06:32.791 --> 01:06:35.115
we understand our weakness and our strength

1499
01:06:35.615 --> 01:06:38.543
so we can exploit

1500
01:06:38.599 --> 01:06:41.020
weakness and strength from other people. So when the

1501
01:06:41.020 --> 01:06:43.951
uh, divic mind rescue team came,

1502
01:06:44.063 --> 01:06:47.063
I didn't push him aside. It's like, okay, what can you

1503
01:06:47.079 --> 01:06:50.047
guys give me? What type of equitment do you have? What are you

1504
01:06:50.071 --> 01:06:53.063
good at? Okay, let's make a plan now. I want

1505
01:06:53.079 --> 01:06:54.675
you to do this, this, and this.

1506
01:06:56.255 --> 01:06:58.955
>> Bryan: Jason, what was your biggest takeaway from this experience?

1507
01:07:00.855 --> 01:07:03.743
>> Bryan Morrison: I think, um, just all the training we do

1508
01:07:03.759 --> 01:07:06.699
in, all the effort we put into it. You know, you never know when you're

1509
01:07:06.707 --> 01:07:09.095
gonna get the call. Um, on

1510
01:07:09.555 --> 01:07:12.323
December 27th, watching a

1511
01:07:12.339 --> 01:07:14.771
hockey game and hours later be doing a mission like

1512
01:07:14.803 --> 01:07:17.715
that. Just knowing that

1513
01:07:17.875 --> 01:07:20.867
you always have to be ready, you always have to be prepared, and you

1514
01:07:20.891 --> 01:07:23.775
can't make that happen just at the last minute.

1515
01:07:24.955 --> 01:07:27.335
It's months, years of preparation

1516
01:07:27.755 --> 01:07:30.571
to be in a position individually and as a crew

1517
01:07:30.603 --> 01:07:32.455
to be able to do a rescue like that.

1518
01:07:33.655 --> 01:07:36.595
>> Bryan: And uh, Vince, what was the biggest thing you learned during this mission?

1519
01:07:37.495 --> 01:07:40.183
>> Vince C. Benoit: I would say the biggest thing for that

1520
01:07:40.239 --> 01:07:42.415
year, not only that mission

1521
01:07:42.575 --> 01:07:45.255
is, uh, stress

1522
01:07:45.415 --> 01:07:48.383
is cumulative. So it might be

1523
01:07:48.399 --> 01:07:51.223
a simple mission one day, and then you keep that

1524
01:07:51.279 --> 01:07:53.679
stress level another mission

1525
01:07:53.767 --> 01:07:56.687
later. Just everything adds up and it doesn't

1526
01:07:56.711 --> 01:07:59.639
need to be. I'm not talking to Sartek in general. Im'm talking

1527
01:07:59.687 --> 01:08:02.345
about pilots or every crew member.

1528
01:08:02.965 --> 01:08:05.925
Stress will add up and at

1529
01:08:05.965 --> 01:08:08.861
some point you

1530
01:08:08.893 --> 01:08:11.749
need to take the time to

1531
01:08:11.797 --> 01:08:13.185
offload that stress.

1532
01:08:14.240 --> 01:08:16.745
Um, if you want to go back

1533
01:08:17.045 --> 01:08:19.749
and do what you're expected to do. Does it make sense?

1534
01:08:19.797 --> 01:08:20.745
>> Bryan: Yeah, for sure.

1535
01:08:20.960 --> 01:08:23.797
>> Vince C. Benoit: Uh, that's the thing I learned that year. Wicked year for

1536
01:08:23.821 --> 01:08:26.564
me. But

1537
01:08:27.904 --> 01:08:30.324
stress added up at the end of the year for sure.

1538
01:08:31.664 --> 01:08:34.568
And you remember m. I talked about it shortly

1539
01:08:34.616 --> 01:08:36.844
about, uh, the decision,

1540
01:08:38.040 --> 01:08:40.944
um, to jump into that

1541
01:08:40.984 --> 01:08:43.084
blizzard with my two,

1542
01:08:43.680 --> 01:08:46.520
uh, brand new team members. They're not brand new,

1543
01:08:46.552 --> 01:08:49.312
but one was a year of experience and the other one was just

1544
01:08:49.368 --> 01:08:52.269
off course. It, it

1545
01:08:52.277 --> 01:08:55.141
was a lot of stress that I was not expecting. It didn't

1546
01:08:55.173 --> 01:08:57.625
feel like a stress in the moment, but after that fact,

1547
01:08:58.405 --> 01:09:01.325
I kind of realized

1548
01:09:01.365 --> 01:09:04.341
that it was stressful for me in the moment

1549
01:09:04.453 --> 01:09:07.225
and it doesn't need to be Sarteh. It could be

1550
01:09:08.685 --> 01:09:11.589
in J'dac saying, okay guys,

1551
01:09:11.757 --> 01:09:14.665
you can do it. I'm sure that was stressful for him.

1552
01:09:15.045 --> 01:09:17.385
So for pilotss

1553
01:09:17.895 --> 01:09:20.871
air crew out there, realize that you're adding

1554
01:09:20.903 --> 01:09:23.767
a lot of stress. Take some time to reflect

1555
01:09:23.831 --> 01:09:26.783
about it and yal from it before, before you

1556
01:09:26.799 --> 01:09:27.719
go too far.

1557
01:09:27.887 --> 01:09:30.115
>> Bryan: How did you, uh, process that?

1558
01:09:32.655 --> 01:09:34.863
If you're comfortable in answering that, you don't have to.

1559
01:09:34.999 --> 01:09:37.815
>> Vince C. Benoit: Yeah, let's go right in it. I, uh, was carrying a lot of

1560
01:09:37.855 --> 01:09:40.831
stress and people around me,

1561
01:09:40.863 --> 01:09:43.791
my peers, we kind of realizing it. Know there's

1562
01:09:43.823 --> 01:09:45.475
things happening at home. We're not,

1563
01:09:46.525 --> 01:09:49.037
we're human like everybody else. Right. Uh, we

1564
01:09:49.061 --> 01:09:51.079
can save lives. But,

1565
01:09:51.079 --> 01:09:53.861
um, we're also human. And my

1566
01:09:53.893 --> 01:09:56.877
peers were the first one to realize it. And you know what I

1567
01:09:56.901 --> 01:09:58.645
did initially? I lied.

1568
01:09:58.765 --> 01:09:59.229
>> Jason Shaw: Oh yeah.

1569
01:09:59.277 --> 01:10:01.533
>> Vince C. Benoit: It's like, oh no, I'm fine, I'm okay.

1570
01:10:01.629 --> 01:10:02.305
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

1571
01:10:03.125 --> 01:10:05.973
>> Vince C. Benoit: Until that person made me feel

1572
01:10:06.029 --> 01:10:08.973
bad for lying to him after three times and

1573
01:10:08.989 --> 01:10:10.229
I finallyop opened up.

1574
01:10:10.317 --> 01:10:10.833
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

1575
01:10:10.949 --> 01:10:13.849
>> Vince C. Benoit: And I just needed to talk about it. That's all I needed

1576
01:10:13.937 --> 01:10:15.965
to do to make me feel better

1577
01:10:16.345 --> 01:10:18.953
and for someone to tell me, well, you

1578
01:10:18.969 --> 01:10:21.913
know, you're not alone. You, you're not

1579
01:10:21.929 --> 01:10:23.481
a superhero.

1580
01:10:23.553 --> 01:10:24.165
>> Jason Shaw: Ye.

1581
01:10:24.545 --> 01:10:27.537
>> Vince C. Benoit: So we're all like that whether you recognize

1582
01:10:27.561 --> 01:10:30.513
it or not. Just take the time to talk about

1583
01:10:30.529 --> 01:10:32.121
it. That's all you need for sure.

1584
01:10:32.193 --> 01:10:35.120
>> Bryan: Yeah, I can totally relate to that. And uh,

1585
01:10:35.120 --> 01:10:38.105
certainly my experience has been that opening up about mental health

1586
01:10:38.145 --> 01:10:41.089
stuff, stress, whatever, uh, is you will

1587
01:10:41.137 --> 01:10:43.889
quickly realize you're not alone. That if you're feeling it,

1588
01:10:43.937 --> 01:10:46.825
probably some of your peers are feeling the same thing. And it is

1589
01:10:46.865 --> 01:10:49.481
like the best medicine is to be able to talk about it

1590
01:10:49.593 --> 01:10:52.329
and take yourself away from just being alone with it.

1591
01:10:52.457 --> 01:10:53.165
>> Jason Shaw: Yeah.

1592
01:10:54.065 --> 01:10:57.009
>> Bryan: Okay. Well, Vince, Jason, I really appreciate you taking the time

1593
01:10:57.057 --> 01:11:00.033
to share your rescue story. It's always a privilege to hear firsthan

1594
01:11:00.089 --> 01:11:02.929
accounts like yours and it truly highlights the bravery and dedication of

1595
01:11:02.937 --> 01:11:05.769
our service members. What you both did that day speaks

1596
01:11:05.817 --> 01:11:08.505
volumes about the courage and teamwork that's required in these high stress

1597
01:11:08.545 --> 01:11:11.497
situations. So I wish you both continued success and safety

1598
01:11:11.521 --> 01:11:14.359
and everything you do moving forward. And uh, thanks again guys

1599
01:11:14.407 --> 01:11:16.111
for being on the show. I really appreciate it.

1600
01:11:16.183 --> 01:11:16.655
>> Vince C. Benoit: Thank youks.

1601
01:11:16.695 --> 01:11:17.515
>> Bryan Morrison: Enjoy it.

1602
01:11:17.895 --> 01:11:20.807
>> Bryan: All right, that wraps up our two part series

1603
01:11:20.871 --> 01:11:23.855
on the air Tindy Rescue with Jason Shaw and

1604
01:11:23.895 --> 01:11:26.783
Vince C. Benoit. For our next episode we'll

1605
01:11:26.799 --> 01:11:29.727
be sitting down with Major Brian Humza, uh, Kilroy to

1606
01:11:29.751 --> 01:11:32.519
talk about Lyft or lead in fighter training in Italy

1607
01:11:32.567 --> 01:11:34.911
and flying the T346.

1608
01:11:34.983 --> 01:11:37.943
Master Brian is an old comrade of mine from

1609
01:11:37.999 --> 01:11:40.923
phase two Harvard training and I'm really looking forward

1610
01:11:40.979 --> 01:11:43.723
to talking with him again. Do you have any questions or

1611
01:11:43.779 --> 01:11:46.683
comments about anything you've heard in this show? Would you or someone you

1612
01:11:46.699 --> 01:11:49.563
know make a great guest or do you have a great idea for a show? You

1613
01:11:49.579 --> 01:11:52.280
can reach out to us at the pilotprojectpodcastmail

1614
01:11:52.280 --> 01:11:54.043
m.com or on all social

1615
01:11:54.099 --> 01:11:57.043
mediadpilotproject and be sure to check

1616
01:11:57.059 --> 01:11:59.675
out that social media for lots of great videos of our

1617
01:11:59.715 --> 01:12:02.331
RCAF and Mission Aviation aircraft.

1618
01:12:02.483 --> 01:12:05.467
As always, we'd like to thank you for tuning in and ask for your help with

1619
01:12:05.491 --> 01:12:08.147
the big three that'like and follow us on social

1620
01:12:08.211 --> 01:12:11.003
media, share with your friends and follow and rate us 5

1621
01:12:11.059 --> 01:12:13.907
stars wherever you get your podcasts. That's all for

1622
01:12:13.931 --> 01:12:16.651
now. Thanks for listening. Keep the blue side up.

1623
01:12:16.763 --> 01:12:17.535
>> Bryan: See ya.

1624
01:12:19.195 --> 01:12:22.091
>> Speaker B: Engineer, shut down all four. Shutting down all

1625
01:12:22.123 --> 01:12:22.475
four engines.