Hard mission at sea

Ahoy mateys, it’s me, Simone the cat. Unlike many felines, I quite like being around water! I love canoeing and kayaking.

Many Canadian Armed Forces members also spend lots of time at sea. One of the things they do is leading search and rescue missions. This takes great skill and courage. Their expertise was put to the test after a major accident 25 years ago off the coast of Nova Scotia. Swissair Flight 111 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Peggy’s Cove on September 2, 1998.

The military and local residents rushed to the scene in the darkness to help. Sadly, none of the 229 people aboard the passenger jet survived. The initial search and rescue efforts soon became a different kind of mission.

The Canadian Armed Forces played a major role in recovering the wreckage from the crash. It was a real team effort. The Navy provided HMCS Preserver as the command ship. Divers and HMCS Okanagan, a submarine, were brought in to search the ocean floor. Military airplanes and helicopters searched the water’s surface. Soldiers combed the beaches to collect debris from the crash that washed up on shore. They also helped handle all the recovered material.

It was a very stressful mission for many of our service members. I raise my paw to salute what they did.