Two Northwestern Ontario Canoeists are out of the woods, thanks to the work of local pilots. Southport's 3 Canadian Forces Flying Training School Commandant Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mutton says they were contacted just after midnight on Sunday morning, with a request for assistance in a search and rescue mission near Red Lake, Ontario. The two men were reportedly canoeing in the area, but had become trapped by the wildfires raging through the region.

Mutton then began coordinating the mission from his Winnipeg home, while the Deputy Commanding Officer acted as the local mission coordinator. Four pilots were also called in to assist with the mission. He notes they also had major support from KF Aerospace, with site manager Peter Fedak and several other staff preparing the aircraft for the mission.

Mutton says it's quite unusual for a training school to be called in to assist in a search and rescue mission, but notes it was a unique situation.

"The SAR (search and rescue) in Winnipeg, 435 Squadron had dropped SAR kits to help these people out, but they fly Hercules fixed wing aircraft which don't have the ability to land in such an area. We were the only air asset around, in either province, that were capable of getting there in the required time to extract these two individuals."

He says search and rescue work falls upon all government agencies, and they also have a desire to support their fellow Canadians. He says while the mission went relatively well, there were some challenges.

"A search and rescue mission, while on the surface may seem complicated it was fairly straightforward. It was more of an extraction of two individuals who we knew where they were. We had a good longitude and latitude position on them, and they wanted to be found. It wasn't technically difficult, but there were weather considerations and there was a fire in the area. The fire was within two miles of their location, so it wasn't the safest place to be, and it was deemed by the rescue coordination centre in Trenton that these people needed to be extracted right away."

Overall Mutton says the mission really highlighted the great relationship between the Department of National Defence and KF Aerospace.