For the first night in a long time I was finally able to get to bed early, I had just found the comfy spot when the pager went off for a search.   One consolation was the fact it was actually in our area so we would be on site quickly.  I travelled to the unit and started organising the equipment required for a night search; the area of search is a mixture of farmland and National Park.  The missing person was known to have medical problems so it was imperative to find him quickly.

The search controller Dave Brennen had gone directly to site to liase with the senior police officer on site.  After packing the required equipment we left the unit in small groups so a vehicle was left for any stragglers.  Once on site I was appointed as the planning officer so I had a bit of organising to keep me going.  The first thing to do was to organise an assembly area as the road ended at a farmer’s fence and would quickly become blocked.  The farmer’s paddock was now used for the assembly area and a FSHQ was established in the bus. Polair had been dispatched with FLIR equipment so we made plans and briefed the members as to what was going on while we waited for it to complete it’s sweep.

The missing person’s car had been found earlier in the day so we had a good place to start searching from.  Numerous people had been to the car before we arrived on site so trying to track footprints was of no help.  The SES search dogs were on the way to the site but would take some time as they were coming from Rockingham.

Polair reported a finding on the ground so Andrew Stanbury the LM and myself were dispatched on quad bikes to investigate.  Directions were relayed from Polair to a police car on the ground then to us via SES radios.  After a short time we were told to search the area we were in, virtually straight away we spotted the person lying under a tree. As he was unconscious we placed him in the recovery position and called for an Ambulance and recovery team.  The recovery crew arrived and the casualty was placed in a stretcher for transport to the main road via a Landcruiser PC.  The ambulance was met at the corner of Romeo and Wanneroo roads and the casualty transferred to it then transported to hospital for treatment.   We then recovered our equipment and had a debrief at site.

An important point realised from this search is that if the right equipment and personnel are deployed to a search quickly, a good outcome can be achieved.  For myself this is only the second search in 15 years service that has had this result.