Helicopter, snowmobiles help retrieve car abandoned on sea ice 3 km from N.S. shore

It took two levels of government and a local fire department to retrieve the abandoned car from the ice on the Northumberland Strait near River John. N.S., shown in this handout photo on Sunday, March 15, 2026.

RIVER JOHN — A volunteer fire department in rural Nova Scotia was left with a bizarre logistics problem this month when someone drove a white Hyundai Accent onto the frozen Northumberland Strait and abandoned it about three kilometres from shore.

Two levels of government pitched in on Sunday to help retrieve the vehicle, in a four-hour operation that ultimately required a helicopter and two snowmobiles, said Terry Heighton, chief of the River John fire department.

The chief said local troublemakers are believed to have been behind the stunt.

“It wasn’t much of a car,” Heighton said in an interview Monday. “It was just an old junker of a car, not licensed or registered or anything.”

Police received a report about a car stuck in the ice on the evening of March 5, said an email from Cpl. Carlie McCann with the RCMP in Nova Scotia. It had come to a stop on the frozen ocean between Brule Point and Cape John in Marshville, N.S., which is about 150 kilometres north of Halifax.

Officers arrived to find two men walking from the vehicle toward the shore, McCann said, adding that the men told police they’d been driving on the ice and the car got stuck. “No criminal offence was identified,” the corporal said.

Officials were most concerned about the depth of the ice and whether it would withstand Sunday’s rescue operation. Heighton said the federal Fisheries and Oceans Department tested the ice with an auger, while the province’s Department of Natural Resources lent a helicopter to transport a crew out to the car.

The plan was to strip the car so it was light enough to be flown out with the chopper, but it soon became clear that wouldn’t work, Heighton said.

The crew ultimately flipped the car onto its roof and towed it back to land with two snowmobiles.

Heighton said the provincial and federal governments were a pleasure to work with and he was grateful for their help, but he wished it wasn’t needed in the first place.

“Imagine the bill for that helicopter,” he said.

A post on the River John fire department’s Facebook page seemed to share the chief’s sentiment, urging, “PLEASE stay off the ice!!”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 16, 2026.

By Sarah Smellie in St. John’s.