3 Die In Cormorant Crash Off Nova Scotia

[Helilog56]

Another sad day within the aviation community. Condolences to the family, friends, and co-workers of those fallen.

For those people, and those that risk their lives to aid and assist others, there is no higher honour.

[widgeon]

Are the flight engineers normally seated ? , i can understand the winch man being up and about to operate the winch. Are the seats in the rear crash attenuating ?

[Intrepid]

The Flight Engineer is the winch operator. In this case, I beleive there were two Flight Engineers because this was a training mission....just as there were three Pilots.....best training value. In preparation for a vessel hoisting sequence, the Flight Engineers as well as the SAR Techs would be out of their seats, secured by harnesses and "monkey tails", moving about the cabin and getting ready for the excercise.

[Rosco]

Let's forego the speculation on this one and wait till we get all the FACTS.

 

A mom & dad have lost two sons in the last 6 years and a brother and sister are missing two brothers who "Gave All" to help others.

 

My sincerest and deepest condolences to all Family, Friends and CoWorkers...............you know who you are and you are in my thoughts and prayers.

 

Godspeed Gary & Dwayne.

 

[transquebecniece]

Terribly tragic. Am so sorry to read about all this. My sympathies to all concerned.

[Fully Articulated]

Let's forego the speculation on this one and wait till we get all the FACTS.

 

That is excellent advice; however, it is clearly not understood by the Halifax Chronicle Herald and its cub reporter and "military expert" Chris Lambie. :down: Witness this journalistic drool. Simply Shameful! Either Chris Lambie misquoted, or Mr Jago has extremely poor judgement. . . Either case exposes the worst in irrisponsible journalistic hype-making. Sombody needs a taste of the lash! :angry:

 

Expert suspects pilot error

 

By CHRIS LAMBIE Staff Reporter

 

Crash investigators say it’s too early to tell what caused a Cormorant military helicopter to plunge into the ocean off Canso on Thursday morning, killing three crew members.

 

But according to one expert, it may have simply been flown into the sea.

"This is far, far too early to talk about cause factors at this point in time," said Maj. Michel Pilon, the military’s lead investigator from the directorate of flight safety.

 

But a former Royal Navy helicopter and jet pilot who examined photos of the downed chopper and read eyewitness accounts said he suspects human error caused the crash.

 

"Quite obviously, looking at the wreckage, I am certain that they must have flown into the sea," said Peter Jago, who was also a Top Gun instructor for the U.S. navy’s special fighter training school.

 

Engine failure is unlikely to have caused the accident, said Mr. Jago (http://www.peterjago.com/id17.html), who still flies.

 

"If it was an engine failure, the guy would have immediately hauled back and would have settled into the sea," he said from California. "I am certain that they must have flown into the sea because they were in an extreme nose-down attitude."

 

More than a dozen military crash investigators have begun to probe the helicopter accident, which happened at 12:30 a.m. Thursday as the aircrew from 14 Wing Greenwood was preparing to practise hoisting exercises with help from a Canso fishing boat.

 

Killed in the crash were flight engineer Sgt. Duane Brazil, 39, a married father of two from Gander, N.L; Master Cpl. Kirk Bradley Noel, 33, a single search and rescue technician from St. Anthony, N.L.; and flight engineer Cpl. Trevor Sterling McDavid, 31, a married father of two from Capreol, Ont., outside Sudbury.

 

A memorial ceremony for the three men is to take place Tuesday at 2 p.m. at Greenwood.

 

The four survivors are Capt. Gabriel Simon Ringuette, a 41-year-old pilot; search and rescue technician Sgt. Martin Francis Maloney, 49; Capt. Ronald Earl Busch, 40, a pilot; and Maj. Gordon Clements Ireland, a 42-year-old pilot. Capt. Ringuette has been released from hospital and the other three are in stable to good condition.

 

The coast guard ship Earl Grey brought the Cormorant into Halifax Harbour at 2 p.m. Friday and unloaded the wrecked aircraft at 12 Wing Shearwater. The CH-149 was missing its five main rotor blades, one section of the tail rotor blade and about four metres of its nose section, including the cockpit and nose landing gear.

 

"As investigator in chief, I am determined to find out what the cause of this accident is and to make effective recommendations for safety measures, preventative measures, so that such a tragic accident does not reoccur," said Maj. Pilon, a helicopter pilot who has lost friends in crashes.

 

His team includes accident investigators, aviation medicine specialists, and aircraft operations and maintenance experts. They’ll interview the four surviving aircrew members and witnesses from the Four Sisters, the fishing boat that rescued them. Investigators will also examine the chopper’s maintenance records and the wrecked helicopter itself.

 

"The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of the aircraft has been recovered and is currently, as we speak, on its way to Ottawa where it will be analyzed by the National Research Council flight data research lab," Maj. Pilon said.

 

"I’m expecting to receive results from this analysis within the next few days."

 

The crew of HMCS Kingston has recovered the missing pieces of the helicopter from the crash site off Canso and will bring them to Shearwater. But small pieces of debris are still floating in the vicinity of the accident and are being pushed close to shore.

 

"I would like to advise the public at large not to touch any of these components and to report their location to the RCMP," Maj. Pilon said.

 

Investigators will come up with a brief summary of what happened within a month and are supposed to wrap up their probe within a year.

 

"Our purpose is not to assign blame or fault," Maj. Pilon said. "Our task is not a pleasant one, but it’s an important one for the families of the Canadian Forces."

 

He made a special point of thanking the crew of the Four Sisters.

 

Maj. Pilon refused to speculate on what brought down the relatively new helicopter.

 

"There are many, many aspects to consider. The aircrew is one aspect. We are going to have to look at the maintenance documents and everything else."

 

Since October 2004, Cormorants have been plagued by cracks in the tail rotor half-hubs, which connect the tail rotor blades to the tail rotor driveshaft. But Maj. Pilon said it’s "far too early to focus in any area" of the helicopter.

 

The downed helicopter’s tail rotor half-hub appears to be intact, Mr. Jago said.

 

"The hub is still there," he said, adding the pilot probably would have had time to land if that had been the problem.

 

The Cormorant wreckage will be stored at a Shearwater hangar during the investigation.

 

"One of the things they try to do is literally put the pieces back together like a jigsaw puzzle, to see if they can see where there may have been a failure," said Bill Dane, an aerospace analyst with American aviation consultant Forecast International.

 

"They’ll want to also tear down the engine to see if there was possibly a failure there."

 

Crash investigators rarely come up with quick conclusions, Mr. Dane said.

 

"They could get lucky, but usually these things take months," he said.

 

Having the helicopter wreckage and survivors to interview will help investigators considerably, Mr. Dane said.

 

"They’ve got a lot going for them as far as pinpointing (the cause)."

 

Canada ordered 15 Cormorants in 1998 and they entered service in 2001. Greenwood had three of the search and rescue helicopters. The base’s lone working Cormorant flew up to Canso on Thursday to help after the crash and the other is undergoing maintenance. The one working Cormorant flew back to Greenwood on Friday, making a pass over Shearwater so the aircrew could take a look at the wrecked helicopter.

 

Cormorants are now flying under restrictions and the tail rotors must be inspected after every three hours of flying. Technicians have also made changes to the aircraft over the last 18 months.

 

"We believe that’s been solved," said Geoff Russell, a spokesman for Agusta-Westland, the Anglo-Italian company that built the Cormorants.

 

"There are inspection procedures in place which, if cracks do occur, they’re spotted a long time before they become an in-flight safety issue."

 

The Italian, British, Japanese, Portuguese and Danish militaries all use versions of the same helicopter.

 

"There’s about 110 aircraft in service now," Mr. Russell said.

 

Two of the Royal Navy Merlins have crashed, one in 2002 and the other in 2004.

 

"There were no fatalities in either of those accidents," Mr. Russell said.

 

Those crashes were "not the fault of the aircraft themselves but primarily related to maintenance issues," he said.

 

AgustaWestland has a test pilot and an engineer in Nova Scotia right now.

 

"We will work with the accident investigation team to find out the cause as quickly as possible," Mr. Russell said. "We’re very concerned when something like this does happen. But we’ve got to work with the customer to understand what the cause was. If there’s any action that needs to be taken once the cause is found, then we’ll do that."

 

( clambie@herald.ca)

[helicopper]

reputations last longer than lives...

 

(an old, irish proverb)

[John Moore]

Human beings speculate about God, the origin of the Universe, the stock market, the weather and helicopter crashes. Speculation is good. It gives the flying public an idea of all the many things that can go wrong in aviation. Wise men will recognize speculation when they see it. The truth will prevail in the end.

[Blackmac]

Isn't the US President going to fly in one those birds.

[Fenestron]

shouldn't matter what he's going to fly in. lots of aircraft crash of all makes and models. If your number is up.....it's up.

 

This one had the tail rotor still on it, and looked like all the blades were there. What else could go catastrophically wrong on a three engine helicopter to make it drop into the ocean. Spacial disorientation?