Canada

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

A prison van containing four suspects in a daring helicopter prison break leave the courthouse after being arraigned, Monday, March 18, in Saint-Jerome, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

A stunning helicopter escape from prison allegedly began with a gun being pulled on a pilot who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A police charge sheet said accomplices used a .38-calibre handgun to hijack a helicopter and force the pilot to veer off course and toward a prison in St-Jerome.

The two alleged accomplices and the two escaped convicts, who were all arrested within hours, appeared in court Monday.

They were slapped with nearly two-dozen charges and, although they did not enter a plea, they were expected to do so as early as their next court appearance on April 16.

Police weren't taking any chances with these prisoners.

"We're going to need more shackles," one provincial police officer shouted out to colleagues as he emerged from the courthouse garage, where he'd been loading the already-shackled suspects into a van.