Features
Military
Operations
Air ambulance clips power line in Pitt Meadows
March 18, 2011 By Carey Fredericks
March 18, 2011, Pitt Meadows, B.C. - An Air Ambulance clipped telephone wires while trying to fly out a man who injured his back Wednesday afternoon while pruning trees in Pitt Meadows.
The man was standing in the bucket of a tractor on a property off McNeil Road when he lost his balance and fell 4.5 metres into a ditch.
“He was half in the water and half out,” said Pitt Meadows assistant fire chief Brad Perrie.
Firefighters lifted the man out of the ditch and transported him to a helicopter, which had landed on McNeil Rd. As the helicopter took off, its rear rotor hit an overhead phone line.
As the helicopter took off, its rear rotor hit an overhead phone line.
Dan Froom, executive director of the B.C. Ambulance Service, said the pilot felt vibrations after hitting the wires and landed the helicopter in a nearby field .
Firefighters transferred the injured man into a waiting ambulance, which transported him to hospital via road.
The helicopter remained in the field overnight.
“The helicopter needed to be checked out to make sure it was safe,” Froom explained.
