Pilot Was Held Hostage, Both Fugitives Recaptured

A helicopter pilot in Canada who thought he was making a routine sightseeing flight Monday wound up as an unwitting accomplice in a prison break, as he was forced at gunpoint to fly to a prison in Saint Jerome north of Montreal, Canada, and help two inmates escape.

The pilot, Sebastian Foray, was shaken but uninjured after the ordeal. He told the owner of the helicopter company Yves Le Roux that the had misgivings about the two men who came for the helicopter tour Monday morning after booking it Sunday, but began the flight anyway. But he soon found himself on the wrong end of a gun heading for the prison.

The New York Times reports that the two inmates attempted to climb up a cable or rope into the aircraft, but one wound up tangled and dangling from it, and one was hanging onto the landing skid as they cleared the prison fence. The inmate tangled in the rope, Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau, was slightly injured when the aircraft landed to allow him and the other escapee, Danny Provençal, to get inside.

After a flight of about 18 miles, Foray was told to land the aircraft again in a parking lot. The escapees and their accomplices got into an SUV. The pilot was blindfolded and abandoned with his aircraft.

But the helo's transponder allowed police to track the aircraft. They followed the helicopter to the parking lot, and then trailed the SUV until it reached a remote cabin where the two escapees and their accomplices were captured after an exchange of gunfire. The pilot eventually removed his blindfold and flew the helicopter back to Mont Tramblant. He was treated at a local hospital for shock.

FMI: www.spvm.qc.ca