Update to story below:
Several Richmond News readers contacted us after reading the story to say they have seen this helicopter landing around the site several times.
One reader spoke to the pilot and said the passenger owns a vacant lot next to the badminton centre.
The News is trying to reach the owner and has reached out to Transport Canada to find out if the landing of the chopper is permitted in the area.
Richmond is well known across the region for being at the centre of all that is bizarre.
But an incident in the north of the city on Thursday morning has to be right up there with the best – or worst.
Richmond News reader Dave Thomson contacted the newsroom after witnessing something being “parked” near the Fraser River and the Bridgeport Canada Line station.
Chopper floats into badminton centre
But it wasn’t a boat being docked, or a train pulling into the station – it was a helicopter making an unscheduled landing in the parking lot of a badminton centre.
“I was just around the sky train bridge entrance and thought I heard a helicopter,” Thomson told the News.
“It seemed louder than usual. Being so accustomed, I ignored it until this thing dropped right into the badminton parking lot.
“A grey-haired woman was the pilot. An older guy (in his 60s) got out of the back.
“I asked him if they made an emergency landing (because) of the wind. He said no!...Only in Richmond!”
Thomson wondered if the landing was even legal and jokingly questioned the need to take a chopper to a game of badminton.
However, when the News contacted Ace Badminton on Van Horne Way, they said they had no idea who the helicopter belonged to.
Badminton centre thought helicopter belonged to the Richmond News
And, due to there being a language barrier during the call, they mistakenly understood the News reporter to be the helicopter owner or pilot and demanded we remove it “from their private parking lot.”
The badminton centre said it was contacting the police, as has the News, to ask if there were any reports of a forced landing in the area.
