It turns out it’s not that easy to pull over a helicopter.
Sgt. Kurt Kowarsch of the Forest Lake Police Department learned that lesson Wednesday night after responding to complaints from residents who live near the Forest Lake Airport. Residents said there was a low-flying helicopter shining a spotlight on their homes.
Kowarsch headed to the airport about 10 p.m., drove out on to the runway and activated his patrol car’s emergency lights when he saw the helicopter land, according to police reports.
This was the exchange he had with the police dispatcher:
Officer: “I’m trying to pull over a helicopter right now that’s trying to take off at the airport.”
Officer: “I got the helicopter stopped, well now it’s taking off again. I’m going to try and get him stopped. I had a few complaints of him flying around.”
Dispatcher: “Where are you exactly?”
Officer: “I’m at the airport. He sees me. He’s taking off. Not much I can do obviously.”
Kowarsch reported that he could not see any identifying marks on the helicopter; an online flight tracker showed it was registered to Life Link III of Minneapolis.
A spokeswoman for the air-medical transport company said Thursday that a Life Link III helicopter pilot was doing “routine pilot training — taking off and landing” at the Forest Lake Airport Wednesday night.
“We were training at the airport,” said Liz Rammer, Life Link’s vice president of marketing. “We were doing nothing out of the ordinary.”
The pilot was not aware of any law-enforcement activity at the airport, she said.
