Helicopter clips antenna of Coast Guard ship
Posted Sep 30, 2014 05:12:56 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SHAW ISLAND, N.S. – A Griffon military helicopter clipped the antenna of a coast guard ship during an exercise off Nova Scotia, forcing it to make a precautionary landing on the front lawn of a summer home.
Maj. Martell Thompson of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax says the chopper’s main rotor struck a wire on the Sir William Alexander on Monday night.
Thompson says the helicopter landed on Shaw Island, about 70 kilometres southwest of Halifax, at around 10:30 p.m.
Blair Hodgman, a resident of the island, says the helicopter landed on the front lawn of a summer residence belonging to Scotiabank president Brian Porter, who wasn’t home at the time.
Hodgman says fire trucks, the RCMP and paramedics arrived shortly after and cut a lock to enter the property and check the aircraft.
She says the pilot went to a neighbour’s house and asked to use the telephone to call his supervisor because he didn’t have a cellphone with him.
Thompson says the military will investigate what caused the helicopter to clip the ship’s antenna.
