A Land SAR operation was successful on Sunday 17th April, with a search of the Wainuiomata Water Treatment Plant area finding the missing person within minutes of departure from the base.
LandSAR was called out to meet at the treatment plant at 11am. AREC responded with a preliminary communications plan based on portable SAR repeaters, HF and backup from DoC repeaters and AREC/LandSAR Incident Management Team (IMT) team members.
The portable repeater was deployed and tested and the first message was the missing party has been found! The repeater was packed up, the forward base put back in the vehicles, a de-brief was held and a happy missing person and associates and search team went home.
AREC team on site: John ZL4JY John ZL2HD