Canada: Coast guard chopper crashes off Nfld., one on board

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread

Coast guard chopper crashes off Nfld., one on board

WESLEYVILLE, Nfld. (CP) - A coast guard helicopter with only a pilot aboard crashed Wednesday in Newfoundland's Bonavista Bay, about 15 kilometres from this tiny community.

The pilot was still missing at nightfall, when search and rescue efforts were scaled back due to darkness.

His name wasn't released.

The search was to resume in full at day break today, coast guard Capt. Brian Penny said at a news briefing late Wednesday.

The chopper, a Bell 212 based in St. John's, was shuttling drums of water between a lighthouse on Cabot Island and the shore when it plunged into the water at about 5 p.m. local time.

No one actually saw the craft go down, said Penny, who is in charge of the rescue operation.

But four coast guard members assisting in the operation at the lighthouse heard a loud noise, then saw ripples in the calm waters about 150 metres northwest of the island.

''Whatever did happen, happened fast,'' said Penny.

''The pilot indicated departing Cabot Island. . .within two minutes after that the helicopter was in the water.''

Penny said there was no indication from the pilot that he was in trouble.

A Labrador search and rescue helicopter arrived at the scene in the early evening.

There were also about 40 small boats from local fishing villages and six longliners sifting through debris, said Dan Sturg, a butcher who works in Brookfield, Nfld.

''There are a lot of small boats in the area,'' he said in a phone interview.

The weather was clear and cool with a light wind.

''Whatever happened, it wasn't the weather,'' another local man, Calvin Barbour, said in an interview.

''It was a sunny day with only a light wind.''

Penny said the coast guard crew was filling a water reservoir for the Cabot Island lighthouse, which is staffed only in the summer.

''She must have made about 12 to 15 trips to the island,'' Barbour said from the small fishing village of Newton, which is within sight of Cabot Island.

Penny said at the news briefing he didn't know how many trips the chopper had made.

Locals described Cabot Island as low lying and rocky with no harbour or cove for boats to dock, Barbour said.

Rescue officials wouldn't comment on whether they thought the pilot, if still alive, could survive the night.

The water temperature was about O Celsius. The air temperature was about 1 C.

http://www.thestar.ca/thestar/editorial/updates/news/200005110_NFLD-CHOPPER.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), May 11, 2000

Answers

Welcome back, Carl. Nice to see you again--missed you!

I linked another article about this crash last night on the BC chopper crash thread.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), May 11, 2000.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ