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Aviation Safety in Canada

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The evidence of a decline in aviation safety in Canada comes from many sources: from industry experts; pilots, mechanics and their unions; accident investigations; and reports by investigative journalists.

The picture that emerges is a disturbing one: an industry where staff and insiders often fear to travel on their own companies' planes, and a system which increasingly looks like 'an accident looking for someplace to happen'.

Pilot fatigue to blame for Air Canada dipping incident

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Bradley Bouzane and Sarah Schmidt – April 16, 2012

A fatigued, napping Air Canada co-pilot who awoke, wrongly believed his flight was on a collision course and pushed the plane sharply downward, is to blame for a January 2011 incident that left 16 injured, the Transportation Safety Board reported Monday.

Pilot fatigue, listed as the cause of the incident involving an overnight flight from Toronto to Zurich, has dogged Transport Canada for years, and safety advocates seized on the report to press Canada to update its "significantly deficient" flight and duty times regulations that take into account people's circadian rhythm and address time-of-day sensitivities.

Pilot fatigue cited in Air Canada in-flight incident

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CBC News – April 16, 2012

A terrifying incident on an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Zurich last year took place because a pilot abruptly pushed the Boeing 767 into a dive shortly after waking up from an approved nap, says a report released today by Canada's Transportation Safety Board.

The report details what happened on Air Canada Flight 878 several hours after it left Toronto for Zurich on Jan 13, 2011. The report also finds several factors, including pilot fatigue, contributed to the incident that sent seven passengers to hospital in Switzerland.

Helicopter safety problem persists 3 years after crash

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CBC News – March 10, 2012

The wife of one of the 17 offshore oil industry workers who died three years ago today when a Cougar helicopter crashed southeast of Newfoundland is renewing calls to improve offshore chopper safety in the province.

"It makes me angry, and there are times when it makes me really angry,” said Lori Chynn, whose husband, John, was aboard the Sikorsky model S-92a that lost oil pressure shortly after takeoff and plunged into the ocean mid-morning on March 12, 2009.

Ottawa ignoring us: N.L. helicopter crash victims

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CBC News – November 7, 2011

The sole survivor of the crash of Cougar flight 491 and people who lost loved ones in the tragedy fear their concerns are being ignored by the federal transport minister.

Their lawyer has sent three letters to the minister’s department but by Friday they had not received a response from Transport Minister Denis Lebel or his department.

New questions raised over cause of Swissair crash

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Douglas Quan – September 14, 2011

More than a decade after Swissair Flight 111 crashed into the waters off Peggy's Cove, N.S., new questions have surfaced over what actually caused the plane to go down and how the investigation was conducted.

Tom Juby, a veteran RCMP forensic investigator assigned to the probe, said he uncovered evidence early on that suggested an incendiary device may have been planted on the plane but that he was prevented by his superiors from following up fully on the evidence and was even directed to alter his notes.

Transport Canada makes out-of-court deal in pilot’s death

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Julian Sher – May 9, 2011

Within 10 minutes of takeoff on a warm September evening in 2005, Robert Honour was fighting to steady his helicopter as it plummeted from the sky, a long trail of grey-black smoke spewing behind it.

Battling with his disabled machine, Mr. Honour appeared to aim for a hayfield to avoid landing on people below in a house and barn near Duncan, B.C. But despite the 51-year-old pilot’s best efforts, the helicopter crashed in “an explosion and fireball,” killing him and his 29-year-old passenger, Les Chadwick.

Report on fatal chopper crash calls for new rules

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CBC News – February 9, 2011

The Transportation Safety Board is recommending several key safety improvements to offshore helicopter travel in a report released Wednesday on the crash of a Sikorsky helicopter that killed 17 people.

After investigating the crash of Cougar Helicopters Flight 491, the board says helicopters must:

'Sequence of failures' blamed for plane crash

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Accident that injured Tim Hortons co-founder was culmination of long list of flawed procedures at private operation, probe concludes

Peter Cheney
Globe and Mail, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

When Tim Hortons co-founder Ron Joyce took up flying, he could afford to do it in style. He put together a fleet of corporate jets and built his own private airport in Nova Scotia, with an oceanfront golf course wrapped around it. But, according to a damning new report, the coffee and doughnut entrepreneur's wealth didn't buy him the most important thing of all - safety.

"There was a clear failure in terms of risk management," said Yves Jolicoeur, a Transportation Safety Board investigator who spent nearly two years probing a 2007 crash that destroyed a new jet and seriously injured five people, including Mr. Joyce. "The accident was the result of a sequence of failures."

Industry Observers Rain Criticism On Transport Canada

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The government's oversight of Canadian aviation has come under intense scrutiny this week, as the concerns of industry critics and whistleblowers were aired in the media.

Two investigative reports dealt body blows to the repeated reassurances about safety that have been given by Transport Canada and by Transport Minister John Baird.

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