First responders responded to a helicopter crash near Nanoose Bay Thursday afternoon.
BC Emergency Health Services received a call just after 12:30 p.m. Thursday for a helicopter crash near the eastern Vancouver Island community.
The helicopter crashed west of Mosaic’s Northwest Bay Operations near Nanoose Bay.
RCMP says only the pilot was on board the helicopter when it went down.
A BC Ambulance ground crew took the injured man to an air ambulance at Mosaic’s yard. He was then airlifted to the hospital.
It’s a commercial helicopter owned by Heliqwest Aviation, an international company that’s based in Alberta with an office in Mill Bay.
It’s open for charters for such things as surveying, forest fire suppression and mapping.
The company’s director of safety tells CHEK News the pilot “is doing fine” and he suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
He said it’s very uncommon for Heliqwest to have an aircraft crash.
He said the company is investigating along with the RCMP.
The land where the crash happened is privately owned by Island Timberlands.
Mosaic said access to the crash site would not be granted to media today.
CHEK News
