Lynn's Comments: The Search and Rescue supervisors were dedicated and serious. I spent a great deal of time in their headquarters, which had been set up in the Lynn Lake Airport. Big maps on the wall showed the flight paths. The false ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter) signal had taken the Hercules away from the position of the downed plane and everyone was becoming edgy and depressed. Once the mistake had been discovered, the Hercules resumed its original pattern. It would track a mile on each side of the path taken by Rod's plane to the bay on Yathkyed Lake--first in a direct line from start to finish, then back and forth across the first path. Spotters stationed in glass pods on either side of the huge plane would scan the ground a mile out and back, a mile out and back. Any slight irregularity, anything shiny, any swath on the ground, they would report to the pilot who would then swing the plane around to have a closer look. A Twin Otter and a helicopter joined the search. The weather was closing in. Even in August, the arctic can be dangerously cold, and timing was critical.
