Pilot likely attempted to correct issue prior to crash

OTTAWA — The release of an initial report into what led to the fatal crash of a Canadian Armed Forces CH-148 Cyclone helicopter into the Ionian Sea in April does not at first glance seem to provide much information.

But Larry McWha, a retired colonel and Sea King pilot and former commanding officer of 423 Squadron, said if you read between the lines, it's quite revealing.

The brief report, released Monday, outlines the circumstances of the crash: the helicopter had flown by the port side of HMCS Fredericton, from stern to bow, before making a left-hand turn to establish a downwind leg in preparation for approach to the ship. The aircraft then commenced a final left turn to set up for the approach.

Then, during this final complex manoeuvring turn to close with the ship, the report says, “the aircraft did not respond as the crew would have anticipated. This event occurred at a low altitude, was unrecoverable, and the aircraft entered a high-energy descent and impacted the water astern the ship.”

All six Canadian Armed Forces members on board died.

The investigation is ongoing, the report concludes, and will focus on both aircraft systems and human factors.

“The language is revealing to me. It may not jump out to others who are not familiar with accidents of this kind,” McWha said.

What the report is saying in plain language, McWha said, is that the pilot attempted to correct some sort of problem, but the aircraft failed to respond to his control inputs and crashed, hence the conclusion that the aircraft “did not respond as the crew would have anticipated.”

“How would they know what the crew anticipated? They're all dead. The only thing they would know is what the pilot's inputs were,” he said.

“It seems to me that they must have evidence from the flight data recorder that the pilot did not command the aircraft to respond and crash as it did.”

It is known that investigators have recovered the voice recorder and aircraft data recorder, which records everything from speed and altitude to what inputs the pilot used. With no surviving crew and only some recovered wreckage, McWha said, logically that's the main source of information about the crash that investigators have.

“If it is unrecoverable, we know that someone tried to recover the aircraft from its impending disaster, but it didn't work. That's what those words mean to me,” he said.

“It's unfortunate they use that term human factors, in my view, because most people when you think about human factors the thing that jumps into your mind is, oh the pilot screwed up … and that's not at all what the information they put out here indicates when you parse through the statements.”

Monday's statement from the Department of National Defence says human factors examine all the human elements within an accident, such as training, aircraft design, how it is flown and interactions of crew members with each other, with the aircraft and with external elements. Aircraft systems factors examine any relevant aspects of aircraft systems, including mechanical, electronic, flight control and navigation systems.