The Royal Canadian Air Force rescued eight men who were stranded on an ice floe in the frigid cold of Canada’s northernmost territory.

A group of hunters were cast adrift on Friday when a large mass of ice broke off and drifted away from Coral Harbour, Nunavut – launching a local rescue effort.

The next day, the Nunavut Emergency Measures Organization reached out to the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Trenton, Ontario, for assistance, because the men had floated beyond their reach.

“It wasn’t life and death yet,” RCAF Maj. Steve Neta said in an interview with Yahoo News. “It was large and looked like a massive expanse of snow. The conditions up there can change so quickly. Just with the change in wind and ocean currents, it can break up into something smaller.”

As a precaution, RCAF sent a CC-130 Hercules plane from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to drop off radios, survival equipment, drinking water and food rations Saturday.

The men dealt with bitter temperatures that dipped below minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Neta.

On Sunday, a CH-149 Cormorant helicopter flew in from Greenwood, Nova Scotia, and hoisted the hunters from the floe, which was roughly 16.7 miles from the nearest coastline, and airlifted them back to Coral Harbour.

“We do these a couple of times a year for sure. It’s something we are used to and well prepared for,” Neta said.

The major also noted that the hunters were properly prepared to handle this sort of situation. They could protect themselves from the elements and used a SPOT beacon to regularly transmit their location to the rescuers.

“They were well-clothed and well-equipped,” he said. “Their preparedness made a huge difference in our ability to do this well.”

Maj. Vince Meunier, the officer in charge of JRCC Trenton, echoed this sentiment in a news release: “This case shows how preparedness greatly increases the chance for survival.”





