Sûreté du Québec (provincial police) helicopter crashed while searching for five
 

A Sûreté du Québec (SQ) (provincial police) helicopter crashed while searching for five French (i.e. from France) tourists who went missing during a snowmobile expedition on Tuesday night.

The helicopter crashed Wednesday afternoon in the Île Beemer area of Lac St-Jean, where the SQ is conducting its searches.

The SQ said the pilot, who was alone on board, crashed in the water. The pilot suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to hospital for treatment.

The cause of the crash is not yet known, but the SQ said the incident will not interfere with its search operation.

Article

Also, from various news sources, the guide for the 8 snowmobilers (on a lake) died shortly after being brought to a convenience store while awaiting for the ambulance. The clerk said she had never seen someone so covered in ice.

8 people from France were affected and 5 are presumably dead. 3 were released from the hospital and left for Montreal to catch a return flight to France.

One of the few remaining Twin Rangers now gone :(. It did serve the SQ well for all these years.

Would not be surprised to see a 429 take it's place.

Fly Safe, Always :ok:

Twin Ranger ??!!!

yes, the SQ operate(d) twin engine LongRangers...I could be wrong but I believe they were equipped with A250-C20R’s. I am fully prepared to be corrected on that but I have seen one in real life on one occasion while fighting fires in QC. It looked like a maintenance nightmare and for little benefit.
fp

nigelh this isn't the accident a/c but here's a couple of photos of a Twin Ranger from a few years ago:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f7fe52faf5.jpg
Twin Ranger
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....bd46082413.jpg
Twin Ranger Cockpit

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f5e0aa6f90.jpg


Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) released a first photo of the Sûreté du Québec helicopter which crashed on Wednesday during search operations in Lac-Saint-Jean.
In the image, you can see the aircraft, a Bell 206, on the ground on a frozen surface of Lac Saint-Jean.The shock appears to have been strong since the skids are completely detached from the aircraft fuselage. The cockpit was also destroyed as a result of the impact.

According to the TSB, the helicopter had just left the search area for missing snowmobilers and was proceeding to La Tuque airport in Mauricie.

“The pilot suffered serious injuries and was rescued by another helicopter,” added the TSB in its release.

The Transportation Safety Board is continuing its investigation into the crash.

source

Why would you send a helicopter on a search with just one person on board? The probability of detection would be very low compared to having at least one other person on board who could concentrate on searching instead of trying to fly and search.

Glad I’m not the only person thinking that! Plus, the chances of the searching interfering with the task of flying are increased!

There is a VERY high probability that the AC was enroute to the area to pickup local Law Enforcement or Local Search Teams who are familiar with the local area. This is very common in Canada.
The fact that it says it was on a search is more then likely meant to imply that it had been tasked on a search but had yet to retrieve the observers. Or the aircraft as stated was heading toward the airport to refuel and the observers had been left behind to be retrieved after refueling.
Things are not always as they read in news reports or first press releasing from TSB. Well, at least not here in Canada. Maybe on the other side of the pond your reporting is always accurate:confused:

It says Crashed while searching - if that is poor reporting then so be it.

By the way, one of the missing snowmobile drivers was the father of two world class biathlethes. One of the two finished on third place in a worldcup race, best result to date for him, and dedicated his podium to his missing father.

https://www.tellerreport.com/sports/...kX3adED-L.html

skadi

SAS,
I took it (and 212) as insinuating that the pilot was searching alone. Very surprised if this were the case.

well, if he was not alone I’m surprised there were not more casualties

My god am I losing something in translation.

I was stating that he was most likely ferrying to or from the search area. (Alone)
I was stating that I doubt he would be searching alone.
Anyway:rolleyes:

Local news sources quote SQ head Guy Tremblay saying that the helicopter crashed while initiating a return to its St Hubert base near Montreal.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....a479a19bea.jpg

The news reported days ago that it was returning to St-Hubert airport near Montreal. Now they are mentioning it was proceeding to La Tuque airport in Mauricie; which is halfway to St Hubert. Probably a fuel stop on the way to St-Hubert.

The 206LT TwinStar was a Bell product built upon a PV conversion by Gemini (?) in the mid-1990s. The Gemini project plan was to shut down one engine in flight to save fuel. The CAA were having none of that malarky !

It was trialled by a few UK police forces when owned successively by Textron and Veritair as G-OCOP but it soon became evident that having two engines sucking fuel from the unchanged tank size left it struggling for range. I think the last police user was Gwent.

It went to operate in Spain and I believe crashed lifting out of a bull ring around 1999.

Bell moved on to the 427 in a quest for a light twin.