Police helicopter blew couple stranded in broken down boat away from waterfall

A Norwegian police helicopter pilot averted a catastrophe on Friday night as a couple in a fishing boat with a broken engine drifted towards a dangerous waterfall. June Kristiansen from Auli and Michael Walton from Raelingen were out fishing in Glomma at about 6pm when the engine on their boat suddenly broke down.

The propeller and engine had been damaged in a collision with a stone. The subsequent engine failure caused the boat, which had no oars onboard, to drift down river towards a waterfall. "It went very quickly. I was reasonably stressed," said June. "Michael considered jumping into the water and swimming, but I made it clear that it was not such a good idea.

"I know what kind of underwater currents that are in the river. I did not think we would manage to swim ashore," she continued. As the boat neared the waterfall the couple called police, who happened to have a helicopter in the vicinity. "Luckily they had a helicopter nearby. It was in place within two minutes. Thank goodness for that," said June.

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The crew of the helicopter acted quickly. They flew the helicopter down to the water and used the rotor blades to blow the boat to shore. "I've been thinking about what could have happened if the police helicopter had not been near. But I try not to think about it," said June.