Civil Air Patrol Search and Rescue Training Exercise Conducted at Prattville Airport

The National Emergency Services Academy were conducting their 5 month training exercise that started in December. The exercises are designed to improve Civil Air Patrol’s search and rescue capabilities.

The exercise involved 5 aircraft from Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi with over 120 cadets and officers in training. Search and rescue is one of three missions that the C.A.P. perform nationally.

“The training scenario that we’re conducting today actually involves electronic beacon targets that are put north of the Montgomery area,” stated Jayson Altieri, the Deputy Director for National Emergency Services Academy S.E. C.A.P. “The aircraft are going out and they’re going to look for those electronic beacons and then they’re going to guide these ground search teams to that target area. This replicates what we would do for an actual emergency search for a missing aircraft attempting to track that emergency locator beacon for that airplane.”

The training exercise will be ending Sunday March 5 around 12 p.m. They are open to the public to observe. Visit their website for more information about the Civil Air Patrol.