Damaged Cormorant helicopter arrives in Halifax for investigation
July 14, 2006
HALIFAX – The mangled hulk of a Cormorant helicopter arrived in Halifax on Friday as investigators began the search for clues as to why one of Canada’s newest military purchases could crash, killing three crew members.
Military officials lined the dock at the Shearwater air base as a coast guard cutter pulled alongside, the wrecked chopper strapped to its stern. It was eventually lifted off by crane and loaded onto a flatbed truck.
Maj. Michel Pilon said a team of more than 12 specialists will begin poring over the crippled aircraft, while analysts in Ottawa go through the cockpit voice and flight data recorders that were recovered after the chopper went down early Thursday.
"There’s a lot of good information available … and this is why it’s going to take time,‘’ said Pilon, who will lead the investigation.
"But this is far too early to talk about possible cause factors.‘’
Pilon said the CH-149 chopper was recovered mostly intact, though the entire three-metre nose section that contains the cockpit was completely cleaved from the front.
Strands of white electrical wire dangled from the exposed portion, and shards of the plane’s distinctive yellow exterior hung limply from its sides.
All of the chopper’s five main rotor blades were ripped off during the crash, leaving only jagged stumps on top – an indication of the force with which it slammed into waters off Canso, N.S.
One of the smaller rotor blades in the tail was also missing, while others were bent in half and broken.
"It’s almost like a dream,‘’ Richard Lavallee, a military flight safety officer, said viewing the wreckage.
"It’s almost unreal.‘’
Pilon said he had yet to begin interviewing the four crewmen who survived the crash that occurred as they were preparing to conduct night-time hoist training exercises.
The chopper from 413 Transport and Rescue Squadron in Greenwood, N.S., approached the stern of the coast guard auxiliary boat Four Sisters to begin lowering a rescue technician.
The aircraft dipped to the right slightly and then crashed nose first into the ocean.
Some of the survivors have given preliminary interviews in hospital by other officials, but Pilon refused to divulge whether they indicated what might have led to the accident that appeared to come without warning.
Some were still in hospital Friday with minor or non-life-threatening injuries.
Pilon said investigators won’t focus on any one part of the helicopter when they begin searching for answers, but will look at everything from maintenance records, interviews, the recorders and information yielded by the aircraft.
He said many of the aircraft’s larger parts were torn away and then recovered, but advised people to not touch components that may wash ashore.
The crash, which killed Sgt. Duane Brazil, Master Cpl. Kirk Noel, and Cpl. Trevor McDavid leaves the Atlantic region short one search-and-rescue aircraft.
The remaining 14 Cormorants are restricted to only essential search-and-rescue missions until more information is available on the cause.
Martin Shadwick, a defence analyst who teaches at York University in Toronto, said the loss of one aircraft compounds a problem that grew worse when two of the helicopters were transferred in 2005 from CFB Trenton, Ont., to the East Coast.
"The crash, at least indirectly, will complicate a pre-existing situation, which was already a problem,‘’ he said. "If this is written off, we’ve lost our spare very early in the service life with the Forces.‘’
Shadwick said it will make it more difficult to acquire spare parts for the remaining choppers.
"The public must be coming to the conclusion we have problems both with our old helicopters and our new helicopters,‘’ he said.
The Cormorant fleet, which entered service in 2001, was already operating under flying time restrictions at the time of the crash because of concerns about potential cracking in the hub of the tail rotors.
Pilon said it was too soon to know whether the rotor problems that have dogged the fleet had anything to do with this latest accident.
In October 2004, all but essential and test flights were suspended because of the discovery of dangerous cracks on a tail rotor.
The Cormorant fleet was grounded earlier in 2004 after one of its British navy equivalents was involved in a crash believed to have been caused by cracks in the tail rotor assembly.
And in February 2004, the Canadian air force suspended training flights after two aircraft developed fuel leaks in the engines. Mechanical problems were also reported in the choppers’ hoists shortly after they replaced the old fleet of Labradors.
Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor said he has faith in the Cormorant.
"Nobody knows at the moment what the cause of the crash was,‘’ he said at a news conference in Iqaluit, Nunavut.
"They’re really terrific aircraft. They’ve got three engines so they’re generally very, very safe. I don’t know what caused this crash, so we’ll just have to wait and see.‘’
© Canadian Press 2006
