But… Pilot Is Charged With More Than A Craving For Sweets

Royal Canadian Mounted Police received a call on July 31st regarding a helicopter that touched down near Dairy Queen in Tisdale, Saskatchewan. 

Originally worried that there could be an emergency, due to the helicopter’s red color, onlookers watched astounded as a passenger exited and returned back to the Robinson R44 with an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. The parking lot belonging to the town’s middle and high schools was empty when the pilot descended, blowing up clouds of dust and debris as it touched down. Luckily, it was a summer Saturday.

The small town’s mayor, Al Jellicoe, watched the scene unfold. 

“Well, I thought somebody must be hungry,” he told CBC jokingly. “Initially, I thought that's probably not the right thing to do.”

The landing was determined to be a non-emergency by the RCMP. The 34-year-old pilot was determined to be licensed to operate the helicopter, but that it was illegal to land where he did. On August 4, 2021, the pilot was charged with one count of dangerous operation of an aircraft, Section 320.13(1)(a), Criminal Code. He will appear in court in Melfort on September 7, 2021.

Comments on Twitter have been quick to report incidences of similar events, perhaps inspiration for this non-emergency landing. In 2009 a pilot set his military-owned CH-146 Griffon helicopter down on a baseball field in Ontario before ordering takeout from A&W fast food.  Another video was posted of a RCMP helicopter landing in a field in Alberta near a takeout restaurant, arguing that perhaps they had landed to grab a burger.

FMI: https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca