The Sudbury Star
Copyright 2008 The Sudbury Star
TEMAGAMI, Ontario — The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating an Air Ambulance helicopter crash that occurred Friday night in Temagami in which at least two people were seriously injured.
Ontario Provincial Police said the Sudbury-based air ambulance was responding to a snowmobile collision about 10:30 p.m. when it crashed just short of a helicopter pad near Snake Lake, about 170 kilometres northeast of Sudbury.
Two pilots and a critical-care paramedic remained in hospital on the weekend.
A spokeswoman for Ornge, which co-ordinates the air ambulance system in Ontario, said the injuries were non-life-threatening.
A second paramedic involved in the crash was released.
The four-man crew was on its way to meet a land ambulance that was transporting a badly injured snowmobiler, who had smashed into a dock on Rib Lake.
OPP said they used a sled to remove the snowmobiler, who suffered serious head injuries, to Temiskaming Hospital in New Liskeard.
The helicopter, operated by Canadian Helicopters Ltd., crashed as it approached the helipad.
“Our thoughts are with the family members,” Ornge spokeswoman Christine Bujold said from Toronto on the weekend.
The agency said the medical transport of patients was not compromised as a result of the incident.
The condition of the injured snowmobiler was not immediately known.
No names have been released.
The Transportation Safety Board is an independent agency that reports directly to Parliament and operates separately from Transport Canada.
It conducts independent investigations, including public inquiries, into transportation occurrences to determine their causes and contributing factors.
John Cottreau, spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board, told The Sudbury Star on Saturday that two investigators were being dispatched from the agency’s Richmond Hill office to the Temagami crash site.
They were to assess the accident and decide whether a full investigation would be necessary, said Cottreau.
The TSB identifies safety deficiencies, makes recommendations to address those deficiencies and reports publicly on its investigations and findings.
A transportation occurrence is any accident or incident associated with the operation of a ship, pipeline, railway rolling stock or aircraft.