Canadian flight investigation team to look into cause of helicopter crash off Greece
Master Cpl. Matthew Cousins, originally from Guelph, was among the crew members still missing Thursday
OTTAWA—The Canadian military is deploying a flight investigation team to determine the cause of a helicopter crash off the coast of Greece that has claimed the life of at least one service member and left five others missing.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a news conference that six people were aboard the Cyclone helicopter that went down in the Ionian Sea on Wednesday as the aircraft was returning to the Halifax-based frigate HMCS Fredericton from a NATO training mission.
“They are all heroes,” Trudeau said Thursday. “On behalf of all Canadians, I would like to offer my support to the family and friends and to the members of the Canadian Armed Forces, to the people of Halifax and to the people of Nova Scotia. We are with you.”
Chief of the defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance confirmed the body of one sailor, Sub-Lt. Abbigail Cowbrough of Nova Scotia, had been recovered. Canadian and allied warships and aircraft were searching for the other service members.
They were identified as: Capt. Brenden Ian MacDonald, pilot, originally from New Glasgow, N.S.
Capt. Kevin Hagen, pilot, originally from Nanaimo, B.C.
Capt. Maxime Miron-Morin, air combat systems officer, originally from Trois-Rivières, Que.
Sub-Lt. Matthew Pyke, naval weapons officer, originally from Truro, N.S.
Master Cpl. Matthew Cousins, airborne electronic sensor operator, originally from Guelph.
While search conditions in the area were good, military officials said the size of the debris field and water that is 3,000 metres deep complicate the effort to find the missing from the crash.
“Even in relatively calm conditions, very small objects in the water are very difficult to find over long periods of time, especially as wind and current expands the search area,” Rear Admiral Craig Baines, commander of the navy’s Atlantic forces, said during a briefing in Halifax.
“But they are continuing, and they will continue to search while they believe there is still an opportunity to find survivors.”
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said the Cyclone’s flight data and voice recorders have been recovered after they broke away from the helicopter when it crashed and will soon be returned to Canada for analysis.
A representative from Sikorsky Aircraft, which builds the Cyclone, is also going to the scene following a request from the military, alongside the Armed Forces’ own investigative team.
The military has imposed what Vance described as an “operational pause” on the rest of the military’s Cyclone fleet in case the crash was caused by a fleet-wide problem with the helicopters. The Royal Canadian Air Force has 17 other Cyclones.
Both Vance and Sajjan on Thursday defended the Cyclones, which the military has only been using on real missions since late 2018 after more than a decade of developmental challenges, delays and cost overruns. The Cyclones replaced the military’s ancient Sea Kings.
“It is an absolute superb aircraft and you know that it’s good when the crews and pilots themselves are talking about the actual capability that it’s providing,” Sajjan said. “Nonetheless, we will conduct a very thorough investigation to get to the bottom of this, like we do with any case.”
Col. James Hawthorne, the commander of 12 Wing Shearwater, where the Cyclone was normally based, echoed that sentiment.
“I do not have any safety concerns at the moment,” he said during the briefing in Halifax. “However, the director of the flight safety investigation will determine exactly what happened as they conduct their investigation and we will move forward at this point.”
Hours before the news conference, Cowbrough’s father Shane identified his daughter as having been killed in the crash.
“I am broken and gutted,” he wrote on Facebook.
“Today I lost my oldest daughter Abbigail Cowbrough in the crash involving the Cyclone from HMCS Fredericton. There are no words. You made me forever proud. I will love you always, and miss you in every moment. You are the bright light in my life taken far too soon.”