The helicopter was carrying four crew members and a patient when it crashed on Friday night, officials said.
Emergency responders on Saturday were searching for four people who were missing after a medical helicopter crashed into a lake in rural Quebec on Friday night, the authorities said.
Five people were on board, four crew members and one patient, said Raphaele Bourgault, a manager for Airmedic, a company that operates the medical helicopter.
One person was found with injuries that were not life threatening and taken to a hospital, said Sgt. Laurie Avoine, a spokeswoman for the Quebec provincial police. It was not clear if the person was among the members of the crew.
The crash happened around 10:30 p.m. in a wooded area north of Natashquan, Quebec, Sergeant Avoine said. The Canadian Armed Forces have been asked to help the provincial police, she said.
Teams are searching on the ground, in the water and by air for those missing, Sergeant Avoine said.
The helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff, said Nicholas Defalco, a spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. The destination and departure sites of the flight were not immediately known.
Airmedic, which has seven planes and six helicopters, said on its website that it was temporarily suspending its air operations until further notice.
Natashquan, which is on the north shore of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and 625 miles northeast of Quebec City, is described by Bonjour Quebec, the province’s tourism group, as “really at the edge of the world.”
The village of 300 is the childhood home of the Québécois singer-songwriter and poet Gilles Vigneault.
The area is part of the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, which has fewer than 100,000 people. Tourists visit the area for whale watching and to enjoy the forest.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
