April 2, 2004 Near Total Collapse of Search and Rescue at Vancouver Airport OTTAWA- "A near total collapse of the search and rescue services for the Vancouver International Airport has occurred with flight restrictions placed on the Canadian Forces front line search and rescue helicopter, the Cormorant," said John Cummins, M.P. (Delta-South Richmond). The Cormorant is the designated backup to the hovercraft stationed at the airport. They have been grounded except for emergencies, until they can be inspected for possible flaws in their tail rotors. Cracks in the tail rotor have been blamed for the crash of a British Royal Navy version of the Cormorant in which five people were injured. Similar cracks have already been found in some the Canadian Air Force's Cormorants. The grounding of the Cormorant could not have come at a more difficult time for airport search and rescue. The sole remaining hovercraft, which is the main workhorse of search and rescue at the airport, suffered major mechanical failure on March 30, 2003. Damage to the propellers is expected to take until mid-summer to repair. Internal documents received under the Access to Information Act reveal that there have been longstanding and unresolved problems with the craft's propellers that involve Coast Guard hovercraft both in Vancouver and Quebec. The airport's second hovercraft has been out of service since October of 2002. A replacement was to be delivered by Christmas of 2002. The delivery has yet to take place. The replacement craft continues to be behind schedule. It is not expected to be operational until at least "late June." The emergency plan for the airport requires two operational hovercraft in the event a passenger jet is forced to ditch on the tidal mudflat off the airport runways. Both Senate and House of Commons Committees have issued reports cataloging the decline in the readiness of Canada's Coast Guard. The crumbling of the Coast Guard's search and rescue capabilities at the Vancouver Airport is a case study of what the Senate and House of Commons Committee's were warning of. "Only remnants remain of what had been, only a decade ago, a highly developed search and rescue system for the airport, the extensive tidal mudflats adjacent to the runways and the heavy marine traffic areas in the Strait of Georgia," said Cummins. "The Chretien and Martin governments have squandered the search and rescue capabilities of Canada's once proud Coast Guard." Contact: John Cummins, M.P.
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