CFSSAT stands for Canadian Forces School of Survival and Aeromedical Training. This Royal Canadian Air Force school prepares aircrew and selected other Canadian Armed Forces personnel for survival after aviation emergencies and for SERE: Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, covering survival, avoidance of capture, resistance to hostile exploitation and escape from captivity. Arctic aircrew preparation is a particular responsibility. Its focus is the ability of potentially isolated personnel to act: establish protection with accessible emergency equipment, withstand cold and prepare for a possible recovery.
Why aircrew need specific preparation
A forced landing, crash or ejection can move aircrew directly from flying operations into a survival situation. A pilot with an ejection seat carries a different stock of equipment from a multi-person transport aircraft crew. The size, location and contents of the emergency pack determine which protective items, tools and signalling equipment are available after leaving the aircraft. Injury, loss of the pack or separation from other crew members can reduce that stock further. Preparation must therefore begin with the person's own aircraft and the equipment actually carried aboard it.
For someone on the ground, individual items become parts of connected tasks. Clothing and available insulation must limit heat loss; a suitable tool may help establish emergency shelter; a retained signalling device must remain accessible and usable. Someone opening a pack for the first time during an emergency has to make these connections while cold, exhausted and possibly unable to move freely.
Land survival, SERE and Arctic Aircrew
The names used in Canadian Air Operations Survival distinguish three tasks. Air Ops Survival Land (AOS-L) concerns preparation for survival on land. Air Ops Survival – Survival Evasion Resistance Escape (AOS-SERE) extends the subject to military threats of capture and exploitation. Air Ops Survival – Arctic Aircrew (AOS-AA) directs preparation towards aviation emergencies in the Arctic. CFSSAT instructors combine theoretical instruction with practical training; mobile training also supports SERE preparation before deployment.
Land preparation must develop the use of available resources; the Arctic component must address their use in snow, wind and freezing conditions; SERE must also account for hostile observation, pursuit and captivity. Aircraft equipment, the operating area and the threat therefore belong in the same preparation for instructors and operational planners. The school's aeromedical responsibilities also address the physiological demands of flying and the use of life-support systems. Their significance for survival lies in the protective and supporting equipment that aircrew wear and can still use as an emergency develops.
Arctic preparation and the interval before pickup
The Arctic Aircrew Survival Course is conducted in Resolute Bay, Nunavut. Its core practical tasks are setting survival priorities, constructing emergency shelters and maintaining core body temperature in sub-zero conditions. In the high north, great distances combine with few accessible transport routes and adverse flying weather. Aircrew may consequently remain on their own for a substantial period while search or recovery assets are still travelling to the area.
Cold also changes the work of using a pack. Cooling hands lose fine dexterity, making fasteners, radios and signalling equipment more difficult to operate. Snow on warm clothing can melt and soak the material. Hard work produces heat but can also leave perspiration in clothing. When the person rests afterwards, their heat production falls while moisture promotes heat loss. Work rate and clothing layers must therefore be adjusted during the work so that effective thermal protection remains available afterwards.
Emergency shelter, wind protection and insulating separation from cold ground serve different functions: limiting air movement around the body and heat transfer through contact. The usable material depends on the accessible pack and the terrain. During an Arctic aviation emergency, snow tools, carried sleeping and protective equipment and local construction material may work together. A lone pilot's limited pack calls for different decisions from the larger stock aboard a transport aircraft.
What SERE adds to environmental preparation
During military isolation, the threat influences whether aircrew should remain at a conspicuous crash site, conceal themselves or change location. An exposed position helps searchers see them but may also attract hostile forces. Movement can help someone leave a threatened place, yet consumes energy and changes the position that matters for recovery. Evasion therefore connects the preservation of physical capability with decisions about detection and capture. Protection and sustenance must be organised within that trade-off.
Resistance and Escape concern the situation after capture. Hostile exploitation may target military information, other people or propaganda. Preparation must therefore include protection against exploitation and coping with captivity. This explains why an aircrew school has a SERE role: the loss of an aircraft can create both an environmental hazard and a military threat.
An earlier CFSSAT training model, Advanced Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (ASERE), included evasion across uneven terrain while carrying equipment and with limited food. The practical training then proceeded through simulated capture, transfer and tactical questioning. During evasion, students had to pace their movement and effort while load, hunger and fatigue made sustenance and attention more difficult. Capture shifted the task from movement decisions in the terrain to coping with restricted freedom of action and hostile exploitation. The subsequent questioning placed protection of sensitive information at the centre while the strain of the preceding field phase was still present.
Sea survival and the different role of SAR Technicians
A water landing or an ejection over the sea changes the immediate survival problems. There is no supporting dry ground, flotation must be maintained, and water transfers heat away from the body. Available protective and emergency equipment must be usable in these conditions. Canadian aircrew Sea Survival training belongs to the Sea Survival Detachment of the Canadian Forces School of Search and Rescue (CFSSAR) at Goose Spit in Comox. This aircrew Sea Survival component is also included in the training path for CFSSAT SERE instructors, giving maritime preparation its own specialist responsibility.
CFSSAR also trains Search and Rescue Technicians, or SAR Techs. Their task is to reach other people in remote or inaccessible areas and provide immediate medical care to casualties. Aircrew Survival prepares the potentially isolated person to endure the emergency themselves. A crew member must work with the equipment they have retained; a SAR Tech also needs the professional skills to reach, rescue and care for other people in distress. These training roles meet at the same incident but carry out different tasks within it.
The relationship with Personnel Recovery
Within the NATO framework, preparation of potentially isolated personnel is part of Personnel Recovery: the recovery of isolated personnel. A person contributes to being located and picked up by understanding their situation, using available communications and signalling equipment and applying prepared identification procedures. Equipment, possible movement and expected behaviour must fit together before deployment. CFSSAT's aircrew and SERE preparation is relevant to this individual side of recovery; conducting a recovery remains a separate task for the forces assigned to it.
A position reported by the aircraft, or its last known position, initially provides a reference point for the search. The actual ejection or crash site may differ; wind during a parachute descent and later movement can displace the person further. A locating beacon sends a signal to a system capable of receiving it, while a visual indication marks the place for searchers. A radio conversation requires serviceable compatible equipment and a receiving station with which contact is actually established. During that contact, the person can report their own position and situation and use prepared authentication procedures to confirm their identity to the recovering side. Signalling must also suit the threat so that a visible or audible signal does not carelessly expose the location.
During actual contact, the person must communicate their situation and restricted mobility and follow instructions for approach and pickup. A casualty who cannot reach a vehicle or landing site presents the recovering forces with a different access and transport task from a mobile person. Distance and weather can delay that access. Thermal protection and the management of personal resources must therefore continue during an ongoing recovery.