"I never realized how hard it is to swim with your clothes on", says administrative assistant Tina Couillard.  Tina and co-workers at Johnstone Strait spent a day at the local swimming pool where Pro Aviation Safety Training put on an "Aircraft Ditching, Sea Survival" course at the invitation of operations engineer Tom Miller.  Four TW employees and a contract scaler had a close call in October, when the floatplane they were in struck a boomstick in Knox Bay and started sinking.  Tina helped handle the emergency that day.

"The escape training is designed to train passengers in underwater egress in the event of an aircraft sinking or rolling upside-down", says Tina.  "The training
provides you with the knowledge and confidence to deal with a real emergency situation.  It would be useful to anyone TW who flies a lot."

The course includes ditching procedures and techniques, sea survival and hypothermia and using survival equipment that would be part of a downed aircraft
rescue.  In the hands-on part of the course, participants enter a pool fully clothed and practice donning and swimming in lifejackets, and entering a life raft.

"The final test was using the underwater egress trainer, a simulated aircraft multi-crew cockpit in which participants are turned upside down while strapped inside with a seat belt", says Tina.  "The idea is to remain calm, identify the exit, unfasten the seat belt and exit.  By the end of the day we were feeling comfortable in the simulator."

Special thanks to Tina Couillard for sharing her story.