By Greg Fry

Training exercise reason for Forces appearance in Kamloops

Nov 15, 2017 | 10:06 AM

KAMLOOPS — Finally, an explanation as to why a Royal Canadian Airforce C-130 Hercules was circling above Kamloops Tuesday.

Steven Van Wagoner, area air deputy for PEP Air, says Search and Rescue Squadron 435 from Winnipeg were here for some training exercises.

“There’s no mountains in Winnipeg right?,” Van Wagoner told CFJC Today. “So, they were doing mountain training out here and they asked us to help out and we did that by having Kamloops Search and Rescue set up a mock crash site up in the grasslands and we sent up an aircraft (a Cessna 172) and found that site and then helped the Hercules as well find the site and then they dropped in SAR techs in order to look after the mock injuries at the site.”

He said they also conducted parachuting exercises in various areas around Kamloops.

“The purpose of the practice is to help the guys from Squadron 435 become better at what they do: rescuing missing people in crashed aircraft. You don’t get good at that by going out and doing it on the occassions it happens, you get good at it by going out and practicing it.”

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Van Wagoner says the training also allowed PEP Air the chance to have a couple of their spotters on the Hercules practicing spotting for targets, crashes or missing people.

He says the practices ran from approximatlely 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. yesterday. The C-130 Hercules left for more training in Comox last night.