Emergency Services
Emergency Services are an important part of the CAP mission. Mission-certified scanners, observers, and pilots fly both training and actual sorties. In Arizona, this may involve looking for forest fires while on training missions and documenting disasters such as flooding for local, state, or national emergency agencies.
CAP Ground Search and Rescue teams also play an integral role. Some searches are best conducted on the ground rather than from the air. They are especially important when searching for an Emergency Locator Transmitter beacon that has gone off, alerting the FAA to a possible plane crash. Most of the time, the beacon goes off because of an extra-hard landing or because its battery is dying, but CAP has to go search for the beacon and make sure the situation is addressed -- whether it's an actual plane crash or a dying battery.
Some additional information about the CAP Emergency Services role:
▲CAP conducts 90 percent of inland search and rescue in the U.S. as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and other agencies.
▲ Coordinates Air Force-assigned missions through CAP National Operations Center at Maxwell AFB, Ala., at a cost of less than $190 per flying hour.
▲ Performs aerial reconnaissance for Homeland Security.
▲ Saves an average of 82 lives per year.
▲ Provides disaster-relief support to local, state and national agencies.
▲ Transports time-sensitive medical materials, blood products and body tissues when commercial resources are unavailable.
▲ Provides air intercept training, impact assessment, light transport, communications support, and low-level route surveys for the Air Force.
▲ Assists federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in the War on Drugs.
▲ Maintains an extensive VHF and HF communications network.
You do not have to be a pilot to be a member of a CAP aircraft crew. Mission scanners sit in the left rear seat of the CAP airplane and take digital photos of what they see in the search area. Mission observers sit in the right front seat, where they watch the ground and also assist the pilot with the avionics, radio communications, etc. Ground team members also complete a certification/training process in order to serve on the team.
Emergency Services Officer: Maj Tim Nell
