Search called off for helicopter pilot missing off Baffin Island

The rugged terrain between Clyde River and Pond Inlet is seen at dusk in this April, 2009 file photo. Searchers believe a helicopter pilot who went missing in the area this week could not have survived the crash. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)

Military officials called of the search for a helicopter pilot missing off Baffin Island August 19.

The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Trenton, Ont., has handed off the search to the RCMP “as a missing persons case,” said David Elias, a public affairs officer from 1 Canadian Air Division in Winnipeg.

Searchers aboard the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Des Groseilliers found debris from the missing Bell 206 Longranger helicopter in the area around Sam Ford Fjord, 100 kilometres northwest of Clyde River, August 18.

“After a thorough search of the north and south shores of the Fjord, search crews were unable to locate the pilot either in the water or on the shore and believe there is no chance of the pilot having survived,” Elias wrote in an email.

Elias said that the debris included parts of the helicopter’s fuselage and an un-inflated life raft.

The pilot was the only person aboard the helicopter, owned by Newfoundland’s Universal Helicopters. His name hasn’t been released, but Norm Noseworthy, the company’s president, described him as an experienced pilot. The man’s family has been notified, Elias said.

The chopper was en route from Clyde River to Resolute Bay and was reported missing after it failed to arrive on time August 16.

Capt. Pierre Bolduc from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Trenton, Ont. said judging by the condition of the debris, the crash was probably “very severe.” He said rescue teams found the pilot’s life raft in the water, and there “was no way he could have survived in the water for that long.”

Elias said poor visibility in the area had hampered the search and steep cliffs in the area were limiting the types of aircraft that could be used in the search.

With files from Postmedia News