Welcome to CASARA Ottawa
The Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) is a national volunteer organization which is funded by the Department of National Defence to assist the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in their mandate of providing air search and rescue in Canada. CASARA also has the mandate to promote flight safety for general aviation.
CASARA Ottawa is a fully mobile unit with no fixed base of operations and is organized to deploy to any location in Ontario to carry out operations in support of a search. All members of CASARA Ottawa are trained in basic first aid, and a number of our members are trained to an advanced level.
CASARA Ontario has a memorandum of understanding with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Ministry of Natural Resources to provide air services for ground and inland marine SAR.
Structure
At the national level, CASARA is made up of thirteen member organizations (MOs), one for each of the thirteen provinces and territories. Each of these MOs is further sub-divided into 'zones' and there are nine active zones (fourteen active and dormant zones) within the Ontario MO.
CASARA Ottawa is Zone 12 and receives taskings from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) located at CFB Trenton and works with 424 Transport and Rescue Squadron, also based at 8 Wing CFB Trenton.
CASARA Ottawa has proudly served the Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec regions for over 30 years.
Meetings
CASARA Ottawa meets on the third Tuesday of the month (except December) at 19:00.
SAREXes
CASARA Ottawa holds Search and Rescue exercises on the weekend following the Tuesday meeting. The exercises are normally held at the Rockcliffe Flying Club (RFC) starting at 08:30. RFC is located at the Rockcliffe airport (CYRO) and serves as CASARA Ottawa's primary operational base. Some of the aircraft used by CASARA Ottawa are based at CYRO and RFC kindly provides space for storing CASARA Ottawa's equipment.
CASARA Ottawa is a fully mobile unit and to train for that, some exercises are held at other locations each year.