ORNGE accident report stirs pain, anger for relatives
Families shaken by revelations of serious problems leading to 2013 helicopter crash that killed four
OTTAWA— John Snowball got only part way through the accident report that detailed the ORNGE helicopter crash that killed his son before he gave up in frustration and anger.
Now Snowball wants to know who will be held accountable for the 2013 accident in Moosonee that claimed the lives of two pilots and two flight medics.
“It made me so mad,” Snowball said in an interview.
“I got into what happened to the ’copter and why it crashed and who was where and I couldn’t read anymore. My son and I were very, very close. It was really tough.”
Flight medic Chris Snowball was killed along with fellow medic Dustin Dagenais, Capt. Don Filliter and First Officer Jacques Dupuy in the May 31, 2013, crash of a Sikorsky S-76A helicopter soon after takeoff on a night flight in northern Ontario.
The Transportation Safety Board report into the crash — released last week — detailed a litany of problems leading up to the accident.
It noted that ORNGE lacked the experienced personnel to run its helicopter operations, operating procedures were inadequate and the two pilots lacked experience flying at night and in instrument conditions.
And it revealed that Transport Canada inspectors knew of the problems and indeed considered shutting ORNGE helicopter operations down until they could be fixed but instead opted for a more co-operative approach that allowed the shortcomings to continue.
“Nobody has been held accountable. Somebody has to be held accountable,” Snowball said.
For the families of those who died, the report stirred more than just painful memories from the crash. It stirred anger that the deaths of their loved ones may have been prevented.
Three years on, Filliter’s wife, Suzanne Pelletier, said the pain of the personal loss makes it tough to discuss the report on the crash.
“Now that the report has been released, we will continue our process of grieving for Don and we look forward to changes being made that will prevent a similar tragedy from happening again,” Pelletier said via email.
She said her concerns centre on gaps in training and oversight by ORNGE. Filliter was the chief pilot at the Ministry of Natural Resources at the time, respected for his flying skills and vast experience. He was working part-time at ORNGE while on vacation from natural resources.
Pelletier said her husband was “incredibly safety-conscious.
“The report concludes that Don himself had reservations about assuming captain duties out of Moosonee, due to his lack of experience in night flying out of that base and in that aircraft. That is the part of the report that is most concerning to me,” Pelletier said in her email to the Star.
Josée Cousineau, who lost husband Dustin Dagenais, said she was left “angry and disappointed” by the report’s findings.
“It didn’t look like there was going to be any accountability. It was infuriating because if any other company would do this, people would be in jail. You can’t have people die and have it, ‘Oh well, we’re improving, we’re doing things better,’ ” Cousineau said in an interview. “They failed to protect the people that were working that day and that’s what this is all about.”
During his time at ORNGE, Dagenais was required to take tests and certifications to keep up his qualifications as a medic. The couple assumed that the oversight was just as rigorous for the pilots.
“They were very thorough and diligent on the paramedic side. He knew how tough it was for him to get through. They didn’t give people many second chances. When it came to testing, it was black and white,” she said. “He really thought it was the same for the aviation side.”
Snowball said his son would never have climbed on board the helicopter had he known about the problems.
“I know my son and Dustin would never have gone out if they knew these guys weren’t capable of night flying. They would never have gone because I know Chris would have turned it down,” said the Burlington resident.
Snowball said he didn’t know Transport Canada was so involved in ORNGE until he read the report. “That was a real shocker to me,” he said.
His anger is aimed at the federal regulator as he wonders if the crash could have been prevented had federal inspectors been more “assertive.”
“They should have been shut down until they could prove these pilots were trained,” Snowball said.
Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau declined to say whether his department could have done better, saying only that his officials would be reviewing the recommendations.
“We haven’t had a chance to look at the details of it, and we’ll respond accordingly within the next three months,” he told reporters.
In its report, the safety board made 14 recommendations — none aimed at ORNGE. That’s because investigators determined that the agency had already taken steps to correct the problems that contributed to the crash.
Dr. Andrew McCallum, president and CEO of ORNGE, arrived just a few months before the accident, at a time when he says the organization was undergoing “significant transition.”
“There was a lot of work to do,” McCallum said in an interview.