We're looking for an R44 Clipper II that was stolen this morning on a beach near Sorel. The theft occurred between 1400 and 1700 local. It's yellow and black. It's a Clipper, so it has emergency floats. Call letters are C-FACC.
If you see this helicopter or a similar one, please contact me at 514-575-7208 or Yves Le Roux at 514-916-8090. If you don't get an answer, call the police!!
Here's the CADORS, again, the narrative translation is mine:
Cadors Number: 2009Q1969
Reporting Region: Quebec
Occurrence Information
Occurrence Type: Incident
Occurrence Date: 2009-09-18
Occurrence Time: 2055 Z
Day Or Night: day-time
Fatalities: 0
Injuries: 0
Canadian Aerodrome ID:
Aerodrome Name:
Occurrence Location: Sorel
Province: Quebec
Country: CANADA
World Area: North America
Reported By: NAV CANADA
AOR Number: 111627-V1
TSB Class Of Investigation:
TSB Occurrence No:
Aircraft Information
Flight #:
Aircraft Category: Helicopter
Country of Registration: CANADA
Make: ROBINSON
Model: R44 II
Year Built: 2008
Amateur Built: No
Engine Make: AVCO LYCOMING
Engine Model: IO-540-AE1A5
Engine Type: Reciprocating
Gear Type: Land
Phase of Flight: Parked
Damage: No Damage
Owner: QUEBEC HELICOPTERES INC./QUEBEC HELICOPTERS INC.
Operator: QUEBEC HELICOPTERES INC./ QUEBEC HELICOPTERS INC. (6016)
Operator Type: Commercial
User Name: Porlier, Nathalie
Date: 2009-09-22
Further Action Required: Yes
O.P.I.: Commercial & Business Aviation
Narrative: The pilot of C-FACC, a Robinson R44 operated by Québec Hélicoptères, has reported the theft of his helicopter which was parked at the owner's in Sorel.
Here´s a helicopter theft which is making headlines this morning local time in Stockholm, Sweden: the robbers stole a Jet Ranger and dropped 4 men on the roof of a security company building (G4S Cash Services) early this morning. The pilot flew away for a while and returned after the robbers had used explosives to gain entry through the roof, after which several large bags of cash were seen by witnesses from across the street being lifted into the chopper and they boarded & disappeared with the loot. Pretty daring thing to pull off? They had also placed a suspicious looking bag next to a police helicopter with a sign saying "bomb" on it so it the police could not follow with their own...
Finn47 wrote:...dropped 4 men on the roof <snip> flew away for a while and returned after the robbers had used explosives to gain entry through the roof <snip> police helicopter with a sign saying "bomb" on it so it the police could not follow with their own...
Wow.
But you'd think the Air Force would be able to scramble a couple of Gripens in the time between someone blowing through the roof of a building with explosives and this guy coming back to pick them up.
I mean, Stockholm is the capital right? Could you imagine this happening in D.C., London, Paris etc and the authorities not being able to chase them down by air? Scary stuff. Perhaps they just thought it was a movie shoot going on.
p.s. you'll note I left Ottawa out of that list, as I doubt we'd do anything about it either.
The cash depot is only 5 kilometres away from the Royal Castle which is right in the center of the city. The nerve these crooks had? The cops´ chopper hangar on the other hand is 28 km away on the opposite side of town but that doesn´t really matter much since the suspicious "bomb bag" "somebody" had left there during the night neutralized the cops´ choppers anyway just long enough for the robbers to escape from the scene without anyone being able to follow them. There were many G4S employees inside the cash depot counting money at the time of the heist but nobody was hurt - which speaks volumes of the professionalism of these perps in their chosen profession
I guess the authorities did not want to ask a civilian pilot already airborne to follow instead? Or that things happened to fast to effect such a response?
neilblythin wrote:
But you'd think the Air Force would be able to scramble a couple of Gripens in the time between someone blowing through the roof of a building with explosives and this guy coming back to pick them up.
Here´s how it works in Sweden: The alarm went out almost immediately & was received by military command as well and they actually had 2 Gripen fighters in the air at the time - so the military told the pilots to engage and they were less than 20 km away, with the chopper on their radar screens BUT: the police command told them to do nuthin´ as this was police business and not for the military so that´s what the fighters did: nothing, not even report the chopper´s position
Amazing, isn´t it?
The security company now offers a reward of one million dollars for info leading to the arrest of the crooks or recovery of the Swedish krona notes
Doesn't Sweden have mandatory military service (or at least did at one point)?
I wonder if the police are the guys who didn't respond well to their time in the military, to have that kind of an attitude about it. I mean, they had a friggin' 'bomb scare' going on with their own aircraft. But, better to let dangerous commando style crooks get away I guess
In the relatively small world that we all operate, you'd think a stolen yellow R44 would stick like a sore thumb, but the suggestion of dope runners could be accurate. The R44 is probably sitting abandonned somewhere as we speak, they would not hang on to it for long. It may be sitting somewhere near the border for all we know... cigarettes smugglers ? How many cartons can you fit in a R44?
Or it was flown to a dissassembly point, loaded in parts into a truck, then a container, and shipped overseas to South America, Europe or wherever....
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) found this morning a helicopter that had been stolen in Sorel last September. The aircraft was hidden in the hangar on a property in Sainte-Lucie-des-Laurentides, north of Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts.
The brand new helicopter was stolen on September 18 from the owner's home, in Sorel-Tracy. The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) had begun an investigation.
Recently, investigators obtained leads allowing to locate the aircraft. Search warrants in hand, they closed in on a property located in an upscale Sainte-Lucie neighborhood at around 9:15 this morning.
They found the craft inside the hangar of the "chemin des Hauteurs" residence. Formerly bright yellow, the helicopter had been stripped in order to be repainted, indicated Ronald McInnis, SQ spokesperson. The windows had been covered with paper.
"One could have believed the aircraft would have been dismantled, but it was practically intact", highlighted Mr. McInnis.
This afternoon, investigators were interrogating the homeowner on whose property the helicopter was found. Charges could be laid.
"As far as we can remember, this is the first time that the SQ investigated a helicopter theft", stated Ronald McInnis.
