Recovery efforts continue
Armed forces certain helicopter crash was accident, not shoot-down
OTTAWA — One body has been recovered and five others were still missing Thursday afternoon as recovery efforts continued following the crash of a Canadian Cyclone helicopter off the coast of Greece.
“All of them are heroes,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said when addressing the media on Thursday.
In a news release Thursday afternoon, the Canadian Armed Forces said Sub-Lieut. Abbigail Cowbrough, a maritime systems engineering officer, originally from Toronto, was killed.
Five others are missing: • Capt. Brenden Ian MacDonald, pilot, originally from New Glasgow, N.S.
• Capt. Kevin Hagen, pilot, originally from Nanaimo, B.C. • Capt. Maxime MironMorin, air combat systems officer, originally from TroisRivières, Qué.
• Sub-Lieut. Matthew Pyke, naval weapons officer, originally from Truro, N.S.
• Master Cpl. Matthew Cousins, airborne electronic sensor operator, originally from Guelph, Ont.
HMCS Fredericton and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies continue to search for the other five members of the helicopter's crew, the release said.
The Royal Canadian Air Force CH-148 Cyclone helicopter from 12 Wing Shearwater was participating in NATO training exercises off the west coast of Greece on Wednesday evening.
Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jonathan Vance said the Cyclone took off from HMCS Fredericton, which was working alongside an Italian ship and a Turkish ship conducting basic inter-ship training, at 4:35 p.m. local time. The helicopter had concluded flight operations and was returning to the ship, and at 6:52 p.m. local time the ship lost contact with the air crew.
Vance said a few moments later, flares were spotted in the water. A search and rescue mission was immediately launched with “every available resource” and has been ongoing since.
Vance said the flares were automatically deployed. He could not provide any information on whether a mayday call was received.
Vance offered condolences to the families, friends and crewmates of those lost.
“There are no words to describe the pain that you feel right now, nor are there any words that can ease it,” he said. “This is a time of agony. … There’s nothing worse than sending your shipmates over the horizon and losing contact.”
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said the cause of the crash is unknown.
Vance said while nothing can be ruled out at this point, he’s quite certain the crash was not a function of contact or a shoot-down.
“Operation Reassurance is an assurance and deterrence mission, meaning the alliance has put in-ground and at-sea capabilities to tell Russia and any adversaries to not interfere with European security (or) North Atlantic security, and also to assure allies we are all in this together,” Vance said.
“At the time of the accident, the standing maritime group was conducting training and not conducting surveillance or particular targeted operations on any vessel, adversarial or otherwise.”
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) now has the task of trying to figure out what went wrong.
Wreckage has not yet been recovered, but Vance said the flight data and cockpit voice recorders broke away from the helicopter separately during the crash, and an automatic beacon allowed the ship’s crew to locate it the next morning. The recorders are both being transported to the National Research Council for analysis.
“There is about 3,000 metres of water in the Ionian sea, so the search continues and until the search is done we won't really know the disposition of any wreckage,” Vance said.
A CAF flight safety team, similar to what would be deployed by the Transportation Safety Board for a domestic incident, was set to depart Canada on Thursday to travel to Greece to investigate the circumstances of the crash, along with a support team to help with logistics.
Vance said the Cyclone fleet, both in Canada and overseas, is under an operational pause — not a grounding — until officials can rule out a fleet-wide problem with the choppers.
But Vance said he has no concerns with or lack of confidence in the fleet’s safety or performance.
“It performs terrifically. It’s got 9,000 hours on the fleet,” he said. “This is an accident and until we know, we won't be able to make any judgments on the airworthiness of the helicopter.” He cited one other incident, a hard landing aboard Halifax-based Asterix in the Pacific Ocean in February 2019, but said an “unusual gust of wind” was responsible.
Sub-Lt. Abbigail Cowbrough was identified by her parents Thursday as the first victim of the crash. Vance said Thursday she was a marine systems engineering officer.
“I am broken and gutted. Today, I lost my oldest daughter Abbigail Cowbrough in the crash involving the Cyclone from HMCS Fredericton,” Shane Cowbrough wrote in a Facebook post.
Less than a week before her death, Cowbrough posted a video to Facebook of her playing Amazing Grace on the bagpipes aboard HMCS Fredericton in Souda Bay, Crete — a tribute to those grieving the recent mass shooting in Nova Scotia.
“You can travel the world and still never meet anyone like an East Coaster. Glad to have been taken in by them, for I’d have it no other way,” Cowbrough wrote.
“To everyone back home, thinking of you,” she wrote, accompanied by the hashtag #NSstrong. Cowbrough volunteered with the Union Fire Club Pipes and Drums, and played the bagpipes at her church in Dartmouth.
Vance would not provide details on why Cowbrough, not a usual flight crew member, was on board the helicopter when it crashed, other than to say she was authorized to be there and that any additional details will be released when confirmed.
HMCS Fredericton, a Halifax-class frigate, departed from Halifax on Jan. 20 with about 240 personnel on board to take part in a six-month deployment in the Mediterranean Sea, part of Operation Reassurance, a NATO exercise that has been ongoing since 2014.
The ship was set to return to Canada in July.
The CH-148 Cyclone is a militarized version of the Sikorsky S-92 helicopter, and replaced Canada’s fleet of Sea Kings in 2018.
There have been several notable crashes of the Sikorsky S-92, most notably Cougar Helicopters Flight 491, which crashed en route to oil platforms off Newfoundland in March 2009, killing 17 of the 18 people on board.