Emergency Services

Civil Air Patrol Takes to the Skies to exercise their Airborne Public Address System

In the rugged Northern California coast beachgoers arrive at a beach, blissfully unaware that an earthquake has struck 400 miles off the coast causing a tsunami that will be inbound within hours. Meanwhile hikers in a remote coastal area are also unaware of the danger of the approaching tsunami. The National Weather Service has initiated the Emergency Alert System to alert residents, but some beachgoers, hikers, and residents along the shore will miss those alerts.

Aircrew from across Group 2 spooled up February 5, 2022, to support a long-standing partner of CAP, California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA). CARDA’s mission is to train, certify, and deploy highly-qualified search dog teams to assist law enforcement and other public safety agencies in the search for lost and missing persons. CARDA is the largest and most geographically dispersed of the three search dog groups in California that are direct resources of the State of California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES). CARDA provides search dog services to all public service agencies at no charge.

Civil Air Patrol Takes to the Skies to exercise their Airborne Public Address System

Location – CONCORD, Calif and SANTA ROSA, Calif.

At 11:00 AM, Wednesday, March 24, 2021 the National Weather Service activated a test of the Civil Air Patrol airborne public address system (APAS) as part of their Tsunami Warning Communications Test. The Civil Air Patrol launched three aircraft over Northern California and our distinctive Red, White, and Blue aircraft provided the broadcasted message to the Northern California Coast of “this is a test of the Civil Air Patrol public address system".