Flying over prisons may soon be illegal.
Global News is reporting that Transport Canada is planning to create new regulations aimed at preventing a repeat of the prison break involving a helicopter on Saturday near Quebec City.
The reports say TC intends to make it illegal to fly over a prison but the report is short on specifics (such as altitude limits, proximity etc.). Just how the new regs will be enforced is also a mystery.
However, there is no shortage of political pressure to do something to stop apparently well-funded and determined crime groups from plucking their members from inside prison compounds.
There is still no sign of the three men who hopped in a green helicopter that landed in the exercise yard of the Orsainville Detention Centre at dusk on Saturday and took off to the west. Officials have not confirmed whether the aircraft has been located.
Orsainville is an old institution and corrections experts say new facilities are designed to prevent such aerial access. Orsainville had apparently purchased steel mesh to cover the open compound but it had not been installed.
The three missing men, Yves Denis, Denis Lefebvre and Serge Pomerleau, had applied to have the conditions of their imprisonment relaxed the day before the escape. They were therefore able to wait for the helicopter in the compound unencumbered by handcuffs or shackles.