Listen: Hercules crew describes Air Tindi rescue jump

Snowshoes? Check. Medical equipment? Check. Firearm in case a bear comes knocking? Check.

Jumping out of a Hercules aircraft into frozen tundra – at night in late December, in blowing snow and strong winds – is one thing. Doing it with 100 lb of equipment strapped to you? Well, it was already hard. Why not?

That’s what it took to leap from an aircraft as a search-and-rescue technician assigned to help Air Tindi’s stranded passengers and crew, 300 km northeast of Yellowknife on the evening of December 27.

Ten people were marooned in the wilderness after their plane hit a hill in what the airline says was a near-whiteout.

All of the crashed Twin Otter’s occupants survived – in part because of the assistance provided by rescuers based in Winnipeg, who boarded a Hercules aircraft to the site and then jumped to the aid of those below.

We interviewed aircraft commander Cpt Jason Shaw and lead search-and-rescue technician Sgt Vincent C-Benoit about their mission.

For the latest on the crash, including what Air Tindi says happened, read our report from Friday.

Below, you can read a full transcript of the interview.

Listen to Afternoons at the Cabin with Ollie, 12-3pm each weekday on Cabin Radio, for our latest NWT news and interviews plus the best mix of rock, pop and indie from 1960 to the 2020s.

This interview was recorded on January 5, 2024. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Ollie Williams: Cpt Shaw, I wanted to start with you, I’m sure you have flown missions like this in all kinds of conditions. Just how tricky were the conditions that evening when you reached the airspace around the accident site?

Cpt Jason Shaw: To give a description of what we were dealing with, the weather on scene was multiple low cloud layers, low visibility due to the blowing snow, as well as high winds. And by that point in the day, it was night as well. That made things more challenging. For me personally, this was probably the most difficult weather I’ve operated in.

What does that mean for the mission? My understanding is you had to circle for a little while and wait quite some time to find a window in the conditions that would work. Is that the case?

Shaw: When we arrive, the first thing we want to do – regardless of any situation – is we want to make sure the area a few miles around the crash site is safe for us to operate in. We also want our guys to see the crash site itself. So over the crash area we would drop flares, and we would descend down in the vicinity of the crash site. The Sar tech team leader and myself, we’re just building a picture of the terrain outside around the crash site, and then the crash site itself. So we’re coming up with a plan, we’re trying to identify any threats, and the risks, and what steps we might take to minimize those risks.

During that initial time period we were there, we saw the cloud layers appeared to be coming up a little bit, and it looked like we’d have the opportunity to deploy the Sar techs at the crash site by parachute. So we made the decision based off the information we had at the time, and we took advantage of that window in the weather to deploy them to the crash site.

How close did you come to having to give up for the evening and turn around? Or was that out of the question?

Shaw: Well, for the overall mission, we made sure we took enough fuel that we would have quite a while overhead. The weather system that was moving through, we generally knew it was going to slowly improve as the night went on. So if we weren’t able to get the Sar techs in right away, we did have a plan that we were going to be able to stay overhead for a few hours and wait for the weather to improve. We were fortunate that fairly early on we did get a little window in the weather that we were able to deploy the Sar techs, but we had some contingency plans if we had to wait a little bit longer.

Sgt C-Benoit, when you jumped down to the site, I can’t imagine that’s the easiest jump you ever done. Tell me a little bit about that jump and how close to the site you were actually able to get when you jumped.

Sgt Vincent C-Benoit: It was a challenging jump – I would say that’s the most challenging jump in my career. But we got good training and it’s something we train for every day. We’re used to jumping in high wind – not that type of wind, but it’s something we’re used to, so myself and the other team members were able to jump and we landed just beside the crash site. We did not walk too much.

Presumably, equipment has to come down with you somehow. I know there were heated tents, there are other things you’re bringing with you. How does all of that equipment get down there? Are you carrying it or is it dropped separately?

Sgt C-Benoit: On a case like this especially, we always have our medical equipment as a priority. So the three of us were carrying medical equipment plus our own personal survival gear for cold weather. And on top of that, we had snowshoes on and firearms for predator protection. We always bring that in the Arctic. So I would say about an 80 to 100-lb bag strapped in front of us as we jumped.

When you reached the site – and I appreciate that it was dark at this point – what struck you about what you could see of the aircraft and the accident scene? What were your first thoughts?

Sgt C-Benoit: That’s a good question. My first thought was realizing that we were in a blizzard, and it was quite the sight to see the aircraft. Also, they set up a survival shelter. That’s a memory I will always remember, for sure – the vastness of the Arctic and to be there on the ground, being the one that’s going to provide help.

The president of Air Tindi has said to us that the passengers and crew were very lucky, in the circumstances, that the outcome of the crash wasn’t worse. What did you think when you got there?

Sgt C-Benoit: I would say there’s a certain amount of luck, for sure. There are also some skills involved that need to be brought up. They had state of the art equipment, so we were able to locate them right away. Also, they were able to set up a survival shelter. They were able to set up lights on the ground for us to be able to find them right away. They had satellite communication with them. So they were prepared. There was luck, but there are skills and preparedness that were involved as well.

Overnight, what were the biggest challenges for you in terms of keeping those people safe and also looking after injured people as well?

Sgt C-Benoit: I would say the biggest challenge was to get in, receive our equipment from the aircraft, and then establish camp in that weather condition. Once everyone was stabilized in our tent, I would say the stress level kind-of decreased because everyone was doing better medically. Everyone that wasn’t really injured, or slightly injured, was there to help. Once we got settled in our camp, it was way better.

And also, we need to bring up the miners. There were four miners from the emergency response team from the mine, from Diavik mine, that were deployed as well. They were able to make it to the crash site on snowmobiles. And I was really relieved to see them coming to help us. Those four men were hard workers, they were prepared to work outside and they were good people. I was really happy to have them.

So overall, we were a total of 17 people there on the camp we established. We stayed for the night, we cooked food, hydrated everyone and kept everyone warm and happy for the night. That was it.

I’m sure every mission like this is different. It presents its own challenges, maybe its own lessons learned as well. What do you both feel like you learned from this mission, Cpt Shaw?

Cpt Shaw: I just feel like all the training we do and all the procedures we have, all that stuff works. So we were able to take all that stuff we had and apply it to this situation for a successful outcome. That’s really the big thing I took away.

Sgt C-Benoit: I would say the same thing. I’m a big proponent of training, especially the junior members at the squadron. It paid on that night, specifically, because the two members that were with me were junior members. And they did an incredible job there on the ground and being able to land there safely and execute the mission like they’ve been training for. That was a positive lesson learned in the sense that we’re going to keep pushing harder our training and being able to provide support to Canadian citizens in need.