Every year, helicopters are spotted in the Greater Victoria region flying at low altitudes and causing some confusion amongst residents who witness the low flyovers.
These flyovers are done on an annual basis on behalf of FortisBC.
The helicopters’ do these low-altitude flyovers to inspect its high-pressure transmission natural gas lines, which the company says is important to its integrity management program.
This year the flyovers will be done by Talon Helicopters with LaSen Inc. between May 14th to June 14th during daylight hours.
“The low-flying helicopter uses LaSen’s aerial LiDAR detection technology to inspect the pipelines,” says FortisBC.
“This technology is used to detect any issues to ensure FortisBC’s system continues to operate safely, reliably and to plan maintenance activities accordingly.”
The Capital Regional District (CRD) is one of 24 regional districts in BC that FortisBC does these low-altitude flyovers.
Though they will be flying over the CRD for a month, FortisBC says the flight time over a single area will be minimal.
FortisBC added that there will be no activity on the ground related to flights and the flight schedule may vary depending on weather conditions and wildfires.
These flyovers come just shortly after a FortisBC high-pressure natural gas line was severed and ignited, sending flames shooting toward a house on Blackwood Street like a blowtorch.
FortisBC and firefighters worked together to shut off the gas, put out the flames and avoid damage to nearby homes.
In the end it took 90 minutes to beat the blaze.
This situation is unrelated to the low-altitude flyovers about to take place, except that it is these high-pressure gas lines that FortisBC uses LiDAR technology to inspect.
