One of Hawaii Wing’s nine CAP Cessnas sits in a hangar in preflight, on stand-by before Saturday morning’s tsunami warnings.
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS – The 13th Air Force in support of the state of Hawaii Civil Defense launched planes from Civil Air Patrol’s Hawaii Wing this morning for statewide tsunami warnings following an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile.
“Eighty percent of the shoreline in Hawaii does not have a fixed base siren,” said Hawaii Wing Commander Col. Roger Caires. “CAP aircraft are the only resource for issuing tsunami warnings, via a speaker system attached to the outside lower portion of their plane’s fuselage.”
Nine Cessnas with full crews are flying pre-assigned warning routes around the islands to look for anybody on or near the shoreline. The planes began sounding the tsunami warning at 6 a.m. Hawaii time, five hours before arrival time.
In addition, CAP’s Pacific Region Incident Command Response Team, made up of 20 highly trained members who can dispatch within four hours, is preparing to deploy to Hawaii if needed.
“I am proud of our members,” said Caires. “They again met the standard of being ready to launch within one hour.”
