Timmins men survive crash

Two Timmins men and a Kapuskasing man are all recovering in hospital after surviving a helicopter crash near Moosonee Friday.
All three men are employees of Hydro One and were aboard an AS350 company helicopter that hit support cables on a communications tower and then dropped to the ground.
Peter Machete, an investigator with the Canada Transport Safety Board, says it appears the helicopter was approaching a remote hydro substation for a landing. There was a clearing in the bush where the helicopter could land. There was also an Ontario Northland communications tower nearby.
Machete says the helicopter somehow got too close to the tower and the main rotor blade struck a couple of the steel cables that support the tower.
At that point, Machete says, the cables and the rotor became entangled, and the helicopter lost its ability to fly.
The helicopter then dropped roughly one hundred feet to the ground. Machete says the pilot and two passengers suffered a variety of injuries such as lacerations and broken bones. The injuries were considered serious but not life threatening.
One of the men, the one with the least injuries, made his way to the tower maintenance building where he found a telephone and called for help.
An Ontario Ministry of Health air ambulance helicopter was dispatched to rescue the men. See the full story in The Timmins Times.