BATON ROUGE — Residents may notice unusual airplane activity in the skies above Baton Rouge on Saturday as members of the Louisiana Wing of the Civil Air Patrol will be conducting a training exercise at the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport.

The exercise centers on a mock search for a lost aircraft. People near Baton Rouge may notice Civil Air Patrol planes in the sky and vans driving around town as part of the training.

CAP cadets and adult members from across the state will travel to Baton Rouge to take part. Mission base staff will coordinate with air crews and ground teams as they run searches for downed aircraft or missing persons.

The exercise also includes training missions to photograph and assess damage from a simulated natural or man-made disaster. Cadets will work as radio operators, flight line marshallers, ground crew members and mission staff assistants.

During the exercise, CAP aircraft will search for a fictional lost aircraft or person. Once the target is spotted, the air crew will radio ground teams with the location. Ground teams are trained to perform basic first aid and bring in local emergency personnel as needed.

The training is designed to prepare cadets for possible careers in the military, law enforcement and as first responders. It also gives them hands-on experience with simulated emergency operations.

The Civil Air Patrol was founded in 1941 and became the official civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force seven years later. It is chartered by Congress as a nonprofit focused on youth development, aerospace education and general aviation and operates the world's largest fleet of single-engine aircraft for search and rescue, disaster relief, training and education.