One person is dead after a helicopter crash in Campbell River on Monday.
B.C. Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) said it was called to the scene just after 11 a.m., but that it did not transport anyone to hospital.
Mounties said the crash involved a locally-owned commercial helicopter, and that one person died in the crash.
Campbell River RCMP said the crash happened in the Spit Road area, home to several aviation companies, including West Coast Helicopters Maintenance and Contracting, Sealand Aviation and Corilair Charters.
Bill Adler with Sealand Aviation said the victim was Ed Wilcock of E&B Helicopters.
Sandra Malone works at the nearby Thunderbird RV Park and Cottage Resort, said the aircraft came down on her uncle’s carving shed and would have killed him if it happened seconds earlier.
“He was pretty shook up because he was sitting in his carving chair, which is right below where the helicopter crashed on top of the roof,” she said.
“Two seconds he stepped away from the chair. He was going outside to talk to the boys who were carving a totem pole just outside that end of the shed.”
Malone said the crash caused significant damage to the shed, adding one of the helicopter’s rotor blades came through the roof right above his chair.
“He just kept saying, ‘I was sitting right below there, I was sitting right below there Sandra.’ He was pretty he’s pretty shook up.“
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Malone said the crash had rattled the tight-knit community, adding that the area is often busy with aircraft but had never seen a disaster like this.
She said another local told her the helicopter appeared to be having difficulty shortly after takeoff.
“He saw the helicopter when it got up above where the commercial fishing boats were, and he said you can tell he was having some problems,” she said.
“He turned around to, it looked like, head back and the helicopter started wobbling quite a bit.”
The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) said the crash involved a Bell 206 helicopter, and that it was deploying a team of investigators to the scene.
The BC Coroners Service and WorkSafeBC are also investigating.
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