In a daring operation worthy of a movie, three men escaped from a Canadian jail by helicopter, prompting a massive manhunt, authorities said. The men escaped from a detention center Saturday night in Quebec City. A helicopter touched down briefly in the courtyard before taking off with the three prisoners, said Ann Mathieu, a spokeswoman for Quebec Provincial Police. We are talking closely with the detention center to figure out exactly how the escape transpired, Mathieu told CNN partner CBC. The priority... is to find the helicopter. A manhunt is under way for Yves Denis Yvon Lamontagne, 35, Denis Lefebvre, 53, and Serge Pomerleau, 49. The first two men were arrested in a drug bust in 2010 and were awaiting trial. Police found weapons, dozens of cars and a plane during the bust, it said. There was no information provided on the third suspect. It marks the second brazen jail escape in Canada in a little more than a year. In March 2013, two men posing as tourists commandeered a helicopter from a Canadian tour company, ordered the pilot to fly over a detention center near Montreal, hoisted two inmates into the hovering aircraft using cables -- and zipped away. It was a real James Bond moment, witness Francis Emond said about last year's escape from the facility in Saint-Jerome, northwest of Montreal. While spectacular, airborne escapes are not unprecedented. Albanian inmate