SAR Calayaca, Rainbow Falls Provincial Park

On Monday the 6th of August 2007 Christina Calayca, a resident of the Toronto area, was camping with friends at Rainbow Falls Provincial Park located near Schreiber Ontario. At approximately 6:30 am Calayca indicated to a friend that she was going jogging and was last observed on a park campground roadway. Calayca never returned to her campsite. An extensive air search was conducted by NOASARA and the OPP but Calayca was not located.

Calayca, who is planning to return to Toronto‘s York University to pursue a teaching degree, had been traveling with three friends who had originally planned to go camping near Montreal. The group of friends then headed to Northern Ontario, deciding to stop at the remote Rainbow Falls, known for a picturesque waterfall.

About 30 OPP officers and civilian searchers conducted an extensive air and ground search, combing the rough terrain in and around Rainbow Falls Provincial Park about 180 kilometres east of Thunder Bay.

NOASARA flew aircraft everyday of the search for two weeks logging over 100 hrs. A Cessna 170B float plane was the main search plane due to its efficient and effective searching in a relatively small area. It gave NOASARA the capability to setup and operate with the OPP command post in Rainbow Falls Park via Whitesands Lake. A Cessna 182 was also extensively used out of the Thunder Bay airport.

A wide array of resources were used to comb the area along the northshore of Lake Superior. The OPP emergency response team was joined by volunteers from LSRU, firemen from Schreiber, Terrace Bay and Marathon in addition to NOASARA. The search was aided by K9 and marine units, along with a OPP helicopter.

News Stories