Pilot dead in southern New Brunswick helicopter crash, safety board investigating

Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) signage is pictured outside TSB offices in Ottawa on Monday, May 1, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

SUSSEX, NEW BRUNSWICK — The pilot of a small, commercially registered helicopter is dead after the aircraft crashed on its way to an airport in southern New Brunswick on Saturday, officials confirmed.

The Robinson R-44 helicopter was travelling from Fredericton to the airport in Sussex, N.B., which is about 80 kilometres northeast of Saint John, said RCMP Sgt. Pierre-Luc Hache in an interview Sunday.

The aircraft never arrived.

The helicopter took off at about 3 p.m. local time on Saturday from the Fredericton International Airport, said a statement Sunday from Hugo Fontaine, spokesperson with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. It was a “visual flight rules” trip, in which pilots navigate based on what they can see outside the cockpit, Fontaine said.

Just before 7 p.m. on Saturday, the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax called the Mounties in Sussex about a missing helicopter with one person on board, Hache said. Crews set out to look for the aircraft.

Searchers found the wreckage of the helicopter and its deceased pilot in the early morning hours on Sunday, in the area of the aircraft’s last known signal, he said.

The body and debris were found west-northwest of the Sussex airport and investigators were en route to the region Sunday to determine what happened, Fontaine said.

The aircraft was registered commercially, Fontaine added.

Officials have not released the pilot’s name, nor any other identifying details.

The Robinson R-44 has four seats and a two-bladed rotor system, with an overall length of about 11.7 metres, according to the Robinson Helicopter Company’s website. The aircraft has a maximum operating altitude of about 4.3 km.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2026.