Helicopter net cuts Inuvik telephone cable

Long distancephone and cell phone service in the Beaufort Delta region of the N.W.T. was cut Wednesday afternoon due to a a mishap with a net being carried by a helicopter.

Inuvik, Aklavik, Tsiighetchic, Fort McPherson and Tuktoyaktukwere affected by the service outage.

Northwestel says a net being carried by a helicopter clipped one of their fibre optic cables near Inuvik around 2:30 p.m. MT. No one was injured.

Local telephone service is not affected.

The company said it's working on getting the cable fixed. Repair crews are being assembled inWhitehorse and will be flown to Inuvik by charterWednesday evening.