An RCMP helicopter from Edmonton landed on the Athabasca Town Common Monday just before noon.
RCMP officer and helicopter pilot Kathy Stewart said she was sorry about the disruption, but needed to check out a vehicle in the parking lot and could not wait for ground units.
“We are looking for a missing person,” she said while walking from her helicopter to a vehicle parked in the lot next to the Town Common.
Stewart said she was working with the RCMP from Slave Lake.
A couple of minutes later, she powered up the helicopter and was back in the sky flying around Athabasca.
The vehicle Stewart was inspecting was not the vehicle she was looking for, said Sgt. Chris Cooper of the Slave Lake RCMP detachment.
“We did ultimately find the person safe and sound, and they have received the assistance they needed,” he said.
The individual was not a threat, said Cooper. The person was in need of RCMP assistance.
“The person was from Slave Lake area,” said Cooper. “We learned they might have been in the Athabasca area via cell phone.”
The RCMP helicopter was used to speed things up, he said.
“When your looking for someone and you need to look in a hurry, having someone up in the air like that is a great assistance, and it just so happened the helicopter was available at that time,” Cooper explained.
