104-year-old rents chopper for northern Denmark family visit

COPENHAGEN – What is a 104-year-old woman to do if she wants to visit family members but can’t sit in a car for a long period of time?

Margrethe Hansen, who lives in a Denmark retirement home some 174 kilometres (108 miles) away from her 82-year-old son and her grandchildren, opted to go by helicopter.

“I thought it was the fastest way to get away,” Hansen told Denmark’s TV2. “I do not know what it costs, but it was worth the money.”

A grandson picked up Hansen on Tuesday from her retirement home on the Danish island of Funen and drove her to a nearby field where a private helicopter waited. He lifted his grandmother onto the aircraft and sat her next to the pilot, and then took a backseat together with a nurse.

The flight to Stoevring in northern Denmark took roughly one hour. Hansen saw her relatives’ new houses from the sky and visited with them on the ground before taking the chopper home the same day.

“The first ride was the best. Otherwise, it was a bit bumpy, but it was fine,” Hansen told the channel.