Summit Offers SAR Lessons

On September 18, 2008, Rotor & Wing will host Search & Rescue Summit 2008 at the Sheraton Hotel in Reston, Va. Click here to register. The 2007 Helicopter Heroism Awards will be given to those that have risked their lives to save others. The morning session, “Old Lessons, New Tools in Search and Rescue” from 10 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. will examine how well the lessons of large-scale responses, as they relate to the integration of helicopter capabilities, have been learned and applied. A panel of experts will examine the responses to such emergencies as Hurricane Katrina in the United States and the Boxing Day tsunami around the India Ocean in 2004-05, as well as large-scale exercises in the United States. These experts will look at political, bureaucratic, and funding factors that fostered success in applying the lessons and those foiled it. They also will examine new tools to facilitate the incorporation of rotorcraft capabilities, both governmental and private-industry ones, in large-scale search and rescue missions. Speakers include: Col. Barry D. Keeling, Commanding, Louisiana State Aviation Command; Trooper 2 Ty Mowry, New Jersey State Police, Chairman of the Eastern Region Helicopter Council’s Helicopter Emergency Response Program; Matthew S. Zuccaro, President, Helicopter Association International; and Marie C. Flanigan, PhD, Lead Investigator, Atlas and Database of Air Medical Services. More