By Thia James

Pilot injured in helicopter accident near Key Lake

Jan 22, 2015 | 10:16 AM

One person was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries after the Eurocopter AS-350 went down near Key Lake, Sask. on Wednesday just after noon.

The pilot was the only person on board the helicopter, which was doing long line power line construction work nearly 18 kilometres southeast of Key Lake. There was a line attached to the power line and it remained attached when the helicopter was moving.

The helicopter was then brought down, hit the ground and sustained significant damage, said Peter Hildebrand, regional manager with the Transportation Safety Board (TSB). The accident happened at about 12:30 p.m.

“It was moving a line from one place to the other, but when it moved forward, typically, you’d see a line uncouple from the load that it was carrying. But that didn’t happen for some reason,” he said.

“So the helicopter moved forward and it was still attached to the load, so it was brought down to the ground by the long line it was attached to.”

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The pilot was able to exit the helicopter on his own, Hildebrand said.

On Thursday morning, the TSB announced it would be sending a team of investigators to Key Lake to gather information about, and assess the incident.

Hildebrand described the terrain as “rolling forest,” similar to what would be seen in the La Ronge area.

According to Pinehouse RCMP, the adult male pilot was taken to La Ronge Hospital with minor injuries and has since been released.

The helicopter belonged to Airspan Helicopters Limited.

paNOW has reached out to Airspan Helicopters, and is currently awaiting comment.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames