A helicopter at Mike Wiegele Heliskiing Resort in Blue River, BC, Canada rolled over Christmas day injuring a guide. At the time of the crash 3 guests, 2 guides and the pilot were in the helicopter. Operations Manager Bob Sayer spoke with CBC about the incident:Â
“Where he’d been landing the previous times, there hadn’t been a big powder cloud, but when he moved over to this spot, he created a very big powder cloud which whited out everything. He knew he was near a peak. He was afraid that if he tried to fly away, he might fly into the peak.”
When he did finally touch down, it was on what looked like a large flat area but there was a slight incline. One skid landed before the other prompting a low speed rollover. One of the guides was seriously injured in the crash with a collapsed lung and internal bleeding. Everyone else walked away unharmed.
Luckily another helicopter with a doctor on it was less than a kilometer away and was on scene in less than 8 minutes. The injured guide was swiftly taken to Royal Inland Hospital where he is expected to make a full recovery and finish out the season behind at desk at the heliskiing operation.Â
After the crash the guests at the resort wanted to go back out skiing:
“People don’t want to sit around and dwell on the fact that helicopters might crash when they are going heliskiing, they would rather just go skiing and think about how great the skiing was.”
Here’s a promo video from Mike Wiegele Heliskiing Resort:
