Contributor - Accidents and Regulations

Contributor - Accidents and Regulations

Gordon Gilbert

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is seeking improved emergency locator transmitter (ELT) standards as a result of its investigation into a fatal controlled-flight-into-terrain accident involving an air medical Sikorsky S-76 in night VMC on May 31, 2013. Both pilots and the two paramedics aboard were killed. The twin-turbine rotorcraft departed at about midnight and crashed just one mile from its departure point, but it took search-and-rescue teams more than five hours to find the wreckage. According to the recently released investigation report, “the helicopter’s satellite tracking system reported a takeoff message and then went inactive. The search-and-rescue satellite system did not detect a signal from the emergency locator transmitter.”

 


The TSB issued <a href="http://http://www.bst-tsb.gc.ca/eng/recommandations-recommendations/aviation/index.asp">14 recommendations in all</a>, several of them calling for Transport Canada, ICAO and RTCA to establish improved ELT crash survivability standards. Additionally, the TSB recommends that Transport Canada require all Canadian- and non-Canadian-registered aircraft operating in the country be equipped with a 406-MHz ELT. The Board also wants ELT “hook and loop” fasteners to be prohibited. The Board took aim at amending operating regulations to better define the visual references required to reduce the risks associated with night VFR.

 


Other recommendations: instrument currency and proficiency requirements should be established for flying in night VFR; terrain awareness and warning systems should be required for commercial helicopters that operate at night or IMC; clearer means are needed for distinguishing the different duties between the PIC and SIC; and all commercial helicopter operators should have to implement a formal and approved SMS.

News and information on safety procedures and concerns.

S-76 Crash Prompts Calls for ELT Improvements

The TSB of Canada issued 14 recommendations as a result of its investigation into the May 2013 crash of a medevac S-76.

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News about significant aircraft accidents and information from accident reports.

News and issues regarding all manner of civil and military rotorcraft and their powerplants, including helicopters, tilt rotors and unmanned air vehicles.

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News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

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