CAP Search & Rescue"

The Civil Air Patrol flies the majority of hours flown on search and rescue missions directed by the Air Force Rescue and Coordination Center (AFRCC). When a small aircraft is missing or a satellite monitored by the AFRCC picks up the signal from an Electronic Locator Transmitter (ELT), the CAP jumps into action. The air crews usually consist of only senior members. Hundreds of hours are spent each year by CAP volunteers chasing down ELT signals. These ELT's are designed to start sending signals if a small aircraft crashes. However, some people use them on their boats or in their cars. This is not really a problem unless the ELT gets bumped around so much that it is triggered. This also happens when people throw them in their closets or if they fall off a shelf.

You see, when the AFRCC dispatches the Civil Air Patrol on a mission, whether it's an ELT or missing aircraft everyone treats the situation as if there is a life at stake (which if a plane crashed might be true). Air and ground search teams do not finish their night's sleep or whatever they're doing. They immediately start setting up a mission base and crews are dispatched into the air and on the ground.

GROUND SEARCH & RESCUE

To compliment the air crews you must have a ground search team. Air crews can identify possible locations of targets, but it takes the ground teams to check them out. The ground crews consist of both cadets and senior members.

DISASTER RELIEF

Civil Air Patrol members assist authorities after disasters strike. They airlift blood, medical supplies and civil or releif officials to disaster areas.

Air surveillance as well as air evacuation of the stranded, sick or injured is another way in which CAP volunteers assist after disasters.

AIR FORCE RESCUE COORDINATION CENTER

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FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY

PENNSYLVANIA EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT AGENCY

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AMERICAN RED CROSS

Last Modified: 12/29/1999