Prison break – by helicopter

Police are looking for three prison inmates who were plucked to freedom in a daring helicopter escape. A prison break took place on Saturday involving a helicopter which enabled 3 detainees to make their escape.

Canadian provincial police have reported that a green helicopter landed in the courtyard of the Orsainville Detention Centre in Quebec City, where two murderers along with a third jumped aboard and made their getaway.

The three escapees – identified as Yves Denis, 35, Denis Lefebvre, 53, and Serge Pomerleau, 49, were arrested in 2010 and charged with drug trafficking, two were subsequently charged with murder and placed under arrest in a provincial jail, according to the Quebec provincial police website.

Police have released photos of the three men and appealed to the public for their help in recapturing the prisoners.

The Quebec provincial jail can hold up to 710 inmates and is normally used to house people awaiting sentencing or those sentenced for a period of not more than two years.

This was the second time in Quebec in which a jailbreak involved a helicopter, a similar case took place last March, when a helicopter pilot was forced at gun point to pluck two prisoners from the St-Jerome prison, the two men climbed up a rope ladder and fled, but police were able to catch the two escapees and the two suspects who had hijacked the helicopter within hours.