Missing helicopter caused scare yesterday

A Bell 206 helicopter (Archive / Wikipedia)

July 4^th, 2013 (InsideCostaRica.com) A Bell 206 helicopter carrying five passengers went missing yesterday, calling authorities into action.

The helicopter departed from the Tobias Bolanos Airport in Pavas en route to Valle de la Estrella in Limón, where it was due to arrive at 10:45 a.m., but never showed up.

The helicopter and its passengers were later found to have landed in Alto Telire, Talamanca.  According to radio communications, the pilot was apparently forced to land the aircraft due to an oil leak in the helicopter’s transmission.

The pilot of the helicopter alerted the owner of the aircraft of the emergency landing, but neglected to alert authorities, who searched for the helicopter and its passengers for nearly an hour in a Ministry of Public Security aircraft.

The pilot and passengers are all reported to be in good health.