Epic Helicopter Escapes…….Sort of

The French Canadian Express

     Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau (36) and Danny Provencal (33) escaped Sunday (2:20pm) from the Saint-Jerome jail (northeast of Montreal) by climbing a rope and then entering a hovering helicopter.  The duo was recaptured by Monday about   30 miles north of the jail along with the two that assisted in their escape.  Provencal was the ONLY one that put up a bit of a fight.  Police were in negotiations with Provencal (who had barricaded himself) until after midnight Sunday.   

 

French Fried Love

     Nadine Vaujour took helicopter lessons in order to break her husband out of prison.  Michel Vaujour, her husband, was serving time for attempted murder and armed robbery and Nadine was not in the mindset to live out her life without him.  Therefore, in May 1986, Michel made his way to the roof of a Parisian prison by using nectarines that were painted to look like grenades.  Nadine picked him up in a helicopter and the two landed in a football field and drove away.  Unfortunately for the love sick duo, their life together was very short lived.  Nadine was found and arrested in southwestern France and Michel was shot in the head in the midst of a failed bank robbery.

The Mexican Escape

     In 1971, NY native, Joel David Kaplan escaped a Mexican prison yard via helicopter.  Kaplan was serving time after being accused of killing his Mexico City business partner.  Kaplan has ALWAYS proclaimed that he was innocent of the crime.  He has NEVER been recaptured or returned to Mexico.  His escape inspired the book, “The 10-Second Jailbreak: The Helicopter Escape of Joel Kaplan” as well as the 1975 movie, “Breakout”.

Frequent Flier Points

     Record holder for planning the most escapes via helicopter is Pascal Payet, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.  This French native began his usage of helicopters as a form an escape when he fled a Luynes prison in 2001.  In 2003, while a fugitive still, he assisted fellow inmates of the prison he escaped from in their own escape using the same escape plan.  He was caught [eventually] and escaped yet again via a chopper that was high jacked by four other men.  Payet and the four escaped without harming the pilot.

Birds of a Feather

     Nordin Ben Allal had NO plans to have others join him in his helicopter escape in 2007.  So when his accomplices landed at the Belgian prison he was serving his time at and other inmates forced their way onboard……..he knew his planning may have been for not.  The extra weight caused the helicopter to spin out of control causing the pilot and several [attempted] escapees to be injured.  Ben Allal was still able to escape only to be recaptured.

Get Em To the Greek

     This past February, convicted murderer, Panagiotis Viastos, attempted to escape via chopper with the help of accomplices.  According to reports, the accomplices hovered over the Greek prison attempting to liberate Viastos via a rope and unleashing a hail of AK-47 shots toward the prison’s guards. The guards fired back, to the ‘surprise’ of the accomplices.   During the botched attempt, Viastos was shot and the chopper ended up having to land in the prison’s parking lot.