Sounds like an engine failure followed by an autoration. He unfortunately struck a hydro poll before touchdown. The article below sheds some light on this unfortunate accidient.
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Les Perreaux and Tu Thanh Ha
Montreal — From Thursday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Wednesday, Aug. 05, 2009 11:07PM EDT
He rushed to New York after 9/11 and to Dawson College when a crazed gunman shot his way into the Montreal school.
Again this week, he was dispatched to the scene of a disaster, covering the aftermath of a twister that hit a small town in Quebec's cottage country.
But on a sunny morning, after the tornado was long gone, it was on a routine assignment that CTV cameraman Hugh Haugland died.
Mr. Haugland and pilot Roger Bélanger were flying over Mont-Laurier, Que., yesterday when their helicopter crashed and burned, killing them both.
With more than 10,000 hours at the controls, Mr. Bélanger, 64, was giving aerial tours of the extensive damage in town.
The aircraft went down under a clear sky a few hundred metres from the runway at the local airport. Witnesses reported hearing the engine backfire just before the crash.
The accident underscored the laborious efforts required to compile what would be just seconds of news footage.
A 44-year-old father of two, Mr. Haugland was remembered as a generous, self-taught, skillful cameraman.
He started in the business at the bottom of the ladder, as a stage hand, teaching himself technical skills and becoming a video editor, then operating a camera, said fellow cameraman Al Stephens.
In 24 years at CTV, Mr. Haugland recorded events from Quebec's turbulent political scene to riots during the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
“Every day we are sending news teams with the best equipment available. We are flying in and hiking into avalanches, we're covering the seal hunt in the ocean off Labrador and we're covering the aftermath of tornados in the Laurentians,” said CTV News president Robert Hurst.
“This is our daily work. It is somewhat risky, but we try to mitigate the everyday risks the best we can.”
Mr. Haugland is the son of long-time CTV Montreal newscaster, Bill Haugland, who retired in 2006.
“Everybody's tearful and it's sort of like being hit with a club,” Bill Haugland said. “You can't think straight. Trying to connect the dots is very difficult.”
Hugh Haugland was known for fine camera work but was an even better friend, his colleagues said.
CTV reporter Tania Krywiak recently arrived at work to find a videotape with a smiley face drawn on it on her desk. She and Mr. Haugland had been on assignment interviewing Bob Thirsk and Julie Payette while the two astronauts were in space. After a long day's work, he stayed late to create a souvenir videotape for her.
“It's the kind of gesture you could count on from Hugh,” Ms. Krywiak said.
The space assignment also illustrated Mr. Haugland's determination. The avid sportsman shot the story with fractured ribs and a broken wrist he suffered earlier that week crashing his mountain bike on a trail. He didn't miss a day of work. He had a cast put on his arm during lunch hour.
“He was just tireless, and he always had time for everybody,” said Jed Kahane, who worked as a reporter alongside Mr. Haugland for eight years.
“In a business where people are always being accused of running roughshod over people to get a story, he was the example of how you don't do that, how you stop and take care of people.”
Mr. Bélanger, a flying enthusiast who owned a business in Mont-Laurier, had earlier taken cameraman Martin Leblanc from the Quebec media outlet TVA in his two-seat chopper for an uneventful flight. Mr. Bélanger said he was offering the rides because he loved to fly.
Mr. Haugland's job was to document calamity, but the pilot had also had an earlier brush with disaster.
In 2007, Mr. Bélanger was flying out of the airport in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., when the twin engines on his Piper Navajo began to sputter. He made a quick return to the airport and landed safely with smoke pouring out of the engines. It was later discovered a ground crew had gassed up the aircraft with the wrong type of fuel.
Mr. Bélanger was well-respected in aviation circles and in Mont-Laurier, where he had owned a machine shop since 1971.
Long-time employee Suzie Forget said “he was a bon vivant and he was always ready to help. I'm sure that's what he was doing this morning, just helping out the reporters who came here to tell our story.”
Mr. Haugland was on assignment with CTV reporter Geneviève Beauchemin. The helicopter was a two-seater so she remained behind, snapping photos of the flight just before takeoff.
“He boarded that helicopter with a pretty big smile,” said Mr. Kahane.“He was going to do what he loved to do.”
Mr. Haugland is survived by a common-law spouse, Francine Maillé, and two daughters, aged 19 and 14, from a previous marriage.
Mr. Bélanger was married with two adult sons.