UPDATE: A chopper but no taxi - military S&R squadron stranded at airport during nighttime mission
By Nelson Daily Staff
Residents throughout the valley last night heard a military helicopter, en route to flooding in Calgary, that was forced to land in Castlegar for the night, according to RCMP Cpl. Deb Postnikoff.
She said local police received a call at about 12:30 a.m., when the chopper’s crew (a Search and Rescue squadron) landed in the closed airport and found themselves unable to contact a taxi service or any other means by which to reach the city’s core.
“Ultimately, RCMP members provided transportation for the squadron to a local hotel, and proceeded with patrols throughout the night to ensure the safety of the military helicopter,” she said.
The chopper took off safely at roughly 11 a.m. Friday.
Previous story:
For the second time in just over a week a RCAF Cormorant helicopter was on a night-flight mission over the Nelson/Castlegar area.
However, the crew wasn’t in the region to perform a rescue.
Nelson RCMP confirmed a helicopter, believed to the CH-149 Cormorant, was in the area en route to assist emergency crews with floods in Southern Alberta.
Unconfirmed reports had the CH-149 Cormorant helicopter flying along the Kootenay River, near Taghum at approximately 11:30 p.m. Thursday, after becoming disorientated due to the foggy weather conditions.
The Nelson Daily contacted the RCAF media liaison early Friday morning to confirm the story. However, a media spokesperson could not say specifically if the CH-149 Cormorant helicopter was or was not in the area.
Taghum is located approximately 10 kilometers west of Nelson.
In the early hours of (Thursday) June 13, a CH-149 Cormorant helicopter was dispatched to Nelson to assist in finding a downed plane that crashed in a heavily treed area at the 6,500-foot level of a mountain near Crawford Bay.
A Heritage City man, who died in the crash, was the pilot and sole occupant of a Cessna Skymaster 337 airplane, which took off from Nelson airport at about 1:30 p.m. June 12 bound for Saskatchewan.
The 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron, based in Comox on Vancouver Island, supports of the Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) in the Victoria Search and Rescue Region.
This region consists of approximately 920,000 square kilometers of mainly mountainous terrain of Yukon and British Columbia and 560,000 square kilometers of the Pacific Ocean extending to approximately 600 nautical miles offshore, including over 27,000 kilometers of rugged British Columbia coastline.
