July 7, 2000
JANE GEORGE
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT — Nearly a full week after the Department of Defense began a major search and rescue operation, an ultra-light plane carrying two south Baffin men has still not been found.
On the evening of Thurs., June 29, Simata (Sam) Pitsiulak, 43, of Kimmirut, and Allen Angmarlik, 43, of Iqaluit, departed from Kimmirut in Pitsiulak’s ultra-light aircraft on what should have been a one-hour flight to Iqaluit.
But they never arrived and, as of Nunatsiaq News press-time Wednesday afternoon, their whereabouts and fate were still uncertain.
Pitsiulak, a former hamlet councilor, is an artist who worked on many large carving projects, including the mace for the new Nunavut legislature. Angmarlik is known to many for his for his work at CBC radio and other organizations in Iqaluit and the Baffin.
Capt. Sylvain Larue, DND’s search and rescue operations director, said if the small plane were able to make a controlled crash, the two men could be in good shape and waiting for help to arrive.
"That’s why we still have hope," Capt. Larue said.
In fact, seven days after the aircraft’s disappearance, search and rescue efforts were being redoubled from search headquarters set up at Iqaluit’s forward operating location site.
There, a command centre co-ordinated the activities of 66 soldiers from Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Quebec, local civilian volunteers, private pilots, and spotters from the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association.
Three Labrador helicopters, two Hercules, three Twin Otters, and a Dash-7 were combing an extended area to the west of the 60 km. zone between Iqaluit and Kimmirut, thought to lie along the plane’s route.
According to Larue, every zone would be searched three times at varying altitudes before being excluded.
Larue said aircraft were flying almost 24 hours a day, except when visibility was reduced due to low light or poor weather conditions.
On the plateau where the plane was thought to have gone down, some areas had not still not been searched six days after its disappearance, due to heavy clouds, wind and even occasional snow.
Despite the passage of time, Capt. Larue said the two men could still be found, and found alive.
"And if they are found alive, and there are SARCTEC (special search and rescue technicians who land on site via parachute), the chances are good they will survive," Larue said.
According to a spokesperson from the Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, the search and rescue efforts would be continued until "all possibilities are exhausted," or until it’s decided there could be little chance of finding the pair alive.
"It’s difficult because we don’t know what happened to the aircraft, and they could be waiting to be picked up," Lt. Commander Glenn Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain said expense wouldn’t be a reason to cut short the search and rescue effort.
"We don’t put a price on saving lives," he said.
Chamberlain said that occasionally, people involved in airplane crashes have survived even after search and rescue efforts were called off.