10,000 square miles of this is what Search and Rescue flyers are up against in trying find the TransProvincial Airlines flight that disappeared without a trace Oct. 22. This is one of the forbidding slopes of Mt. Weber near Cranberry Junction. ite on white The search for CG-KIY by Michael Kelly Last Thursday was the first decent weather the 442nd Search and Rescue Squadron had seen since the TransProvincial Airlines flight they were seeking disappear- ed between Bronson Creek and Terrace three days before, and they took full advantage of it, quarter- ing the 10,000-square-mile search . area from first light to dark. Three DeHavilland Buffalo air- craft and two Boeing Labrador helicopters from the 442nd in Comox, in company with a pair of Twin Otters from a Canadian Forces group in Edmonton and six local private airplanes, failed to find any clues to the whereabouts of the missing Piper Navajo and its four occupants under clear and sunny skies. By the following morning, the weather had again started to close in, a prelude to gathering fall storms moving in from the Pacific. At 1:45 p.m. Friday Capt. Gord Macdonnell, his co-pilot, flight engineer and navigator, with two search and rescue technicians and four civilian search spotters, strode up the drooping ramp of a waiting Buffalo aircraft and prepared to go out again. Their destination was the far northern ‘part of the search — area, the Bell-Irving River valley. The SAR airplanes are painted an explosive amber the colour of aviation fuel, with red highlights 12-24 mos. 8.9% 6% FINANCE RATES: LEASE RATES: TERRACE We listen better... and act! OTEM FORD | 4631-KEITH AVE., TERRAGE, B.C., PHONE: 635-4984 around the insignia. The Buffalo, built for the military and specifi- cally outfitted for search and res- cue missions, looks like a Twin Otter that came from a bad gene pool and grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. The exterior is all business, and the inside has that unfinished look of grey utility unique to military hardware. The main fuselage is outfitted with a cubbyhole lined with maps and instruments where the navigator sits below the flight deck, four seats to one side for spotters rest- ing their eyes, a rack with two stretchers and a rescue sled, and at the rear plexiglass bubbles on either side into which peering spotters can lean for a panoramic view of everything below the airplane. As the spotters don headsets and strap themselves in and the turbine engines whistle and shriek at idle in the background, a helpful SAR tech dressed in incandescent orange mutely indicates the coffee machine and paper cups in a for- ward galley area and envelopes of air sickness bags high on the bulk- heads above the seats. With every- one briefed and seated, the Buffalo heads down the ramp at a fast rumble, then turns around to face the waiting runway. The shriek tums to a snarl as the props change pitch and after a brief roll the Buffalo is climbing out and banking eastward. search will concentrate closer to home. After a tum to the left above Kitwanga, the Buffalo lowers and begins a slow circuit . around the monumental mass of Mt. Weber, a peak near the junc- tion of the Cranberry and Nass Rivers. If Max Neubacher had followed the Iskut River valley out of Bronson Creek and turned south to follow Highway 37, he would have flown past this area. An air search in the flat country follows a methodical grid pattern, with aircraft tacking back and forth up and down lines laid out on a _ rectangle. In the mountains, how- ever, things are very different. The initial search is done over the projected flight path of the missing airplane at 1,500 feet above ground, covering a swath ‘three miles on each side of the corridor, looking for an Emergency Locator Transmitter signal or an obvious visual distress signal like _ — Continued on page AS (ys Performance Radials The weather has gradually deteri- J orated since the crew’s briefing at : : ihe SAR headquarters in the 747 | Air Cadet hall, and with things closing in around Terrace the fi AT FORD AND MERCURY DEALERS! __ 25-36 mos, | 9.9% 10% 1991 and prior new ‘Ford or Mercury Cars and Trucks customer has option of the above Special Finance Rate or Cash Back ranging from $500 to $1000 FESTIVA -ESCORT/TRACER MUSTANG PROBE _TEMPO/TOPAZ TAURUS/SABRE AEROSTAR F-SERIES PICKUPS ‘RANGER : BRONCO 37-48 mos 10.9% 12% rp Wns PONT a Wa tty al be ATL RST SI aR hal pei TES ~ CALL TOLL FREE - 1-800-772-1128 0 ws ECONOLINE: 8 pl a8/@GR13: TRACKSTO... KAL@TIRE HURRY! Prices Expire Nev. 3rd Our Price Includes Road Hazard Coverage We Sell Chains & Batteries - Codarland Tire Service Ltd. 4929 Kelth Avenue Terrace, B.C, - 635-6170 ©