"Stewart Island SAR exercise to test SARTrack tool "

A major search and rescue operation in Stewart Island this weekend will be based on the unsolved case of a hunter who disappeared more than 25 years ago.

Joe Freiman, a 64-year-old farmer, went on a hunting trip with three friends in May 1991.

While the party were at the Mid Big Glory Hunter Camp, Joe went hunting alone for a few hours in the afternoon of Thursday 30 May 1991.

Sadly, he never returned that evening.

Mr Freiman has never been found, but with the trial of new search technology and the arrival of more than 70 police and volunteers from the Southern District, Police are revisiting the details of the case to search the area again.

Ten teams are arriving from the mainland on Friday afternoon, along with a management team, all of whom will be split over three shifts, allowing for a 24/7 operation.

Based at Oban, Police will “live track” the Search and Rescue (SAR) teams using SARTrack, a new radio transmitting tool being trialled by Police.

This is the first major search operation in New Zealand to use the one SARTrack tool across multiple teams. It has previously been used for small operations only.

The SARTrack tool was developed by Bart Kindt, a software developer now based in Germany, and volunteer Search and Rescue dog handler Adrian “Snow” Dance, so that he could keep track of where his dog went.

A live transmitter is connected to each team of searchers and their location can be reviewed and logged by the coordinator and other teams.

Stewart Island Community Constable Dale Jenkins says organising the operation has been a technical challenge:

“The search area is probably one of the most remote parts of New Zealand so it will be difficult for Police to provide good communications.

“There is a DOC repeater there, but Police are having to install their own communications systems and repeaters to make this work.

“In any areas where cellular coverage is difficult, this radio tool can be particularly helpful.”

Police and volunteer SAR teams are travelling by ferry on Friday night, to Glory Bay, and will be rowed ashore from there, where they will then make their way to their designated search areas.

Mr Dance will be taking part in the exercise and developer Mr Kindt will be tracking the search from Germany.

“There will be no helicopters, just good old fashioned foot searching in challenging country with this new radio technology,” says Constable Jenkins.

He says there are real health and safety benefits to the system:

“It gives the incident controller an indication of where all team members are and have been at any one time.

Teams, training records and notes on each search point can be entered too.

“It is immediately clear if areas have been covered, or missed in the search.

“If a team takes off in the wrong direction, or into the wrong valley, this can be immediately corrected by the controller too.”

On Sunday afternoon, the search and rescue teams will return to base for a debrief before heading back to Bluff on Sunday evening.

Senior Sergeant Brian Benn, Southern District Police SAR Coordinator, says the exercise is an ideal opportunity to test the new technology in New Zealand conditions.

“Having one management system used by the 11 LandSAR groups and Police staff could provide significant benefits, with the ability to monitor progress of an active search in real time allowing for more effective search operations.

This means we could potentially find people quicker, which means saving more lives and putting less demands on searchers in the future.”

The exercise is funded by NZ Search and Rescue (NZSAR) and New Zealand Police.

ENDS

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