Province's night-flight limitations frustrate North Shore Rescue

The province's refusal to allow North Shore Rescue to perform helicopter hoist rescues at night is putting both stranded victims and rescue personnel at greater risk, according to rescue and helicopter personnel.

It's not a matter of if, but when, a stranded hiker dies because of the policy, said Mike Danks, team leader at North Shore Rescue.

“There will come a time when someone succumbs to their injuries because we are not able to do what we're trained to do,” he said. “It will happen.”

Landing a team on a mountainside at night is more dangerous than hoisting a victim by helicopter, he said. The B.C. government allowed in late 2020, after three years of lobbying by North Shore Rescue, flights in the dark with night-vision goggles, but it didn't include helicopter hoists in the pilot project, citing undue danger.

Night-vision goggles have been around for 40 years, so the technology is advanced and proven, but North Shore Rescue and Talon Helicopters pilots were the first volunteers in Canada granted access to technology long used by the military, air ambulance and police.

Peter Murray, owner of Talon, compares using the goggles with suddenly being able to flick on a light switch after having always had to work in a windowless basement by penlight.

“It's like one day someone invents electricity, you can see everything,” he said.

“The goggles basically turn night into day, so anything we can do during the day, we can do at night. This whole risk thing (for nighttime helicopter hoists) doesn't exist.”

What irks Murray most is the experts at Transport Canada — former test pilots, aeronautical engineers and airline pilots — have given them a steady green, but provincial bureaucrats without any flight experience are flashing red.

So while Transport Canada has granted the go-ahead, the province remains unconvinced night hoists would be safe, although it hasn't told the helicopter operator, North Shore Rescue or Postmedia News what exactly it is about night helicopter hoists that is unsafe.

“We go through the wringer with Transport Canada to get approved,” said Murray, who has 9,000 hours of flying over B.C.'s mountains.

Emergency Management B.C., operating under the Public Safety Ministry, regulates search-andrescue operations in the province. Postmedia was told executive director Pader Brach was unavailable.

Asked what additional risks are involved in a nighttime helicopter hoist when flying with night-vision goggles, a spokesperson said: “Using helicopters in search-andrescue involves specific risks, and night flight increases that risk. Adding Class D helicopter rescue further and substantially increases the risk to the volunteers.” Most recently, a Cormorant helicopter from 442 Squadron in Comox had to be called in for a nighttime rescue on Sept. 5 to take a severely injured hiker to hospital.

While the Cormorant crew's expertise is impeccable, Danks said, Cormorants are meant for opensea operations, not the tight work of rescuing people in forested ravines.

“I've been hoisted into that helicopter and it is absolutely terrifying because it's not fit for the terrain,” Danks said. “It causes a hurricane downwash that breaks branches, it raises creeks right out of the creek bed, it is incredibly hazardous. As a last resort we will do that, but we shouldn't have to.”

Murray and Danks have requested a risk matrix showing night hoists with night-vision goggles are less safe than landing a crew of four or five nearby and have them make their precarious way to a victim in the dark, but have so far been left empty-handed.

About 35 per cent of North Shore Rescue calls arrive within 60 minutes of nightfall.

In the Mount Crown incident, the helicopter crew was able to spot the 50-year-old victim's phone light from more than a kilometre away. They wouldn't have seen his arm sticking out from a crevice from that distance in daylight, no matter how vivid the orange on the victim's sleeve may have been.

“So right away, we're able to pinpoint where he is,” Danks said. “But there's nothing we could do for him. We had a crew there that was trained and capable to do the extraction, but because of limitations put in by the province we're not able to do that.

“Instead we're doing other exits, dropping (rescue volunteers) off and walking overland and carrying people back when we've already proven (a hoist) is far superior. It requires less people and it's much better for patient care.

“If you add up the amount of man hours that it takes to extract someone over land as opposed to with (helicopter), it's astronomically different, like we're putting way more people at risk.”

Provincial officials have been invited to try out the goggles on a night flight, but haven't responded to the offer, Danks said. The last he heard from the province was May 13.

“This is something that we need for our community and we are happy to offer the services regionally, as well, if required,” Danks said. “During that meeting, we discussed our concerns, we asked for the province to come back to us with what was holding them back.

“We have not heard one thing, not a peep from them since.”