CF CH-149 Cormorant fatal crash

[Ian Corrigible]

Link to Milcrew thread here (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=234526). Sad news. :(

I/C

[remote hook]

Just heard the bad news, three of the seven crew killed during a hoisting exercise. The A/C has been recovered, so hopefully the cause will be known sooner than later.

RH

[Phoinix]

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=234547

Sad news indeed :(

[widgeon]

Terrible news . CBC now reporting that one of the victims brothers was killed several years ago also at age 39 in a helicopter accident while resupplying a light house.

[Heliport]

Reuters Canada report Three killed in Canadian military helicopter crash

MONTREAL (Reuters) - Three Canadian military personnel were killed and four injured on Thursday after their search and rescue helicopter crashed into the Atlantic Ocean during a training exercise.

Canadian Forces said the CH-149 Cormorant helicopter from the 413 Transport and Rescue Squadron crashed into the ocean off Canada's east coast, near Canso, Nova Scotia.

"Last night, 413 Squadron lost three members of our family," Lieutenant-Colonel Tom Hughes, the squadron's commanding officer, told reporters at the Greenwood military base in Nova Scotia.
"There are obviously lots of questions as to what happened, but the answers to this will only come after the investigation is under way and complete."

The injuries suffered by the surviving four crew were not considered life-threatening.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered his condolences to the families of those killed and injured in the crash. "Canada mourns the loss of these men," he said.

The crash happened shortly after midnight local time during a training exercise with a Canadian Coast Guard vessel.

Military officials said the cause of the crash was not immediately known, but the Air Force halted training flights on the fleet of 15 Cormorants. The aircraft was recovered and placed on a Coast Guard ship. "We are very confident in the safety of the aircraft," Hughes said, despite incidents in the past that have prompted the Air Force to place flying time restrictions on the Cormorant.

In 2005, a search and rescue squadron based in Ontario temporarily halted the use of Cormorants after problems with the helicopter's tail rotor assembly.
In April 2004, Canada imposed flying restrictions on its Cormorant fleet following a crash in Britain in March of a Royal Navy Merlin Mk1, a variant of the aircraft.

The Cormorant and the Merlin Mk1 share similar components, including the tail rotor half-hub assembly, according to Canada's Department of National Defense.

Canada took delivery of 15 Cormorants, made by Anglo-Italian consortium AgustaWestland, in 2001-02 and the fleet has been fully operational since 2004. The three-engine Cormorant is a search and rescue variant of the AgustaWestland EH101 helicopter.

AgustaWestland is a unit of Italy's Finmeccanica SpA.

[Bronx]

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/16b6f2ca-3671-421d-b40b-5ee0ea90baea/chopperwreck.jpg http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/maps/2006/07/13/ns_canso.jpg


Damaged Cormorant helicopter arrives in Halifax for investigation
July 14, 2006


HALIFAX -- The mangled hulk of a Cormorant helicopter arrived in Halifax on Friday as investigators began the search for clues as to why one of Canada's newest military purchases could crash, killing three crew members.

Military officials lined the dock at the Shearwater air base as a coast guard cutter pulled alongside, the wrecked chopper strapped to its stern. It was eventually lifted off by crane and loaded onto a flatbed truck.

Maj. Michel Pilon said a team of more than 12 specialists will begin poring over the crippled aircraft, while analysts in Ottawa go through the cockpit voice and flight data recorders that were recovered after the chopper went down early Thursday.

"There's a lot of good information available ... and this is why it's going to take time,'' said Pilon, who will lead the investigation.

"But this is far too early to talk about possible cause factors.''

Pilon said the CH-149 chopper was recovered mostly intact, though the entire three-metre nose section that contains the cockpit was completely cleaved from the front.

Strands of white electrical wire dangled from the exposed portion, and shards of the plane's distinctive yellow exterior hung limply from its sides.

All of the chopper's five main rotor blades were ripped off during the crash, leaving only jagged stumps on top -- an indication of the force with which it slammed into waters off Canso, N.S.

One of the smaller rotor blades in the tail was also missing, while others were bent in half and broken.

"It's almost like a dream,'' Richard Lavallee, a military flight safety officer, said viewing the wreckage.

"It's almost unreal.''

Pilon said he had yet to begin interviewing the four crewmen who survived the crash that occurred as they were preparing to conduct night-time hoist training exercises.

The chopper from 413 Transport and Rescue Squadron in Greenwood, N.S., approached the stern of the coast guard auxiliary boat Four Sisters to begin lowering a rescue technician.

The aircraft dipped to the right slightly and then crashed nose first into the ocean.

Some of the survivors have given preliminary interviews in hospital by other officials, but Pilon refused to divulge whether they indicated what might have led to the accident that appeared to come without warning.

Some were still in hospital Friday with minor or non-life-threatening injuries.

Pilon said investigators won't focus on any one part of the helicopter when they begin searching for answers, but will look at everything from maintenance records, interviews, the recorders and information yielded by the aircraft.

He said many of the aircraft's larger parts were torn away and then recovered, but advised people to not touch components that may wash ashore.

The crash, which killed Sgt. Duane Brazil, Master Cpl. Kirk Noel, and Cpl. Trevor McDavid leaves the Atlantic region short one search-and-rescue aircraft.

The remaining 14 Cormorants are restricted to only essential search-and-rescue missions until more information is available on the cause.

Martin Shadwick, a defence analyst who teaches at York University in Toronto, said the loss of one aircraft compounds a problem that grew worse when two of the helicopters were transferred in 2005 from CFB Trenton, Ont., to the East Coast.

"The crash, at least indirectly, will complicate a pre-existing situation, which was already a problem,'' he said. "If this is written off, we've lost our spare very early in the service life with the Forces.''

Shadwick said it will make it more difficult to acquire spare parts for the remaining choppers.

"The public must be coming to the conclusion we have problems both with our old helicopters and our new helicopters,'' he said.

The Cormorant fleet, which entered service in 2001, was already operating under flying time restrictions at the time of the crash because of concerns about potential cracking in the hub of the tail rotors.

Pilon said it was too soon to know whether the rotor problems that have dogged the fleet had anything to do with this latest accident.

In October 2004, all but essential and test flights were suspended because of the discovery of dangerous cracks on a tail rotor.

The Cormorant fleet was grounded earlier in 2004 after one of its British navy equivalents was involved in a crash believed to have been caused by cracks in the tail rotor assembly.

And in February 2004, the Canadian air force suspended training flights after two aircraft developed fuel leaks in the engines. Mechanical problems were also reported in the choppers' hoists shortly after they replaced the old fleet of Labradors.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said he has faith in the Cormorant.

"Nobody knows at the moment what the cause of the crash was,'' he said at a news conference in Iqaluit, Nunavut.

"They're really terrific aircraft. They've got three engines so they're generally very, very safe. I don't know what caused this crash, so we'll just have to wait and see.''

© Canadian Press 2006

[turbinetaxi]

Grounded again !


http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=10e51295-238c-4ddc-9881-25c7b279ff2f&k=74505

[dangermouse]

:ugh: read the report you quote, the aircraft are not grounded

'limited to essential flights only' does not mean a grounding, it's common sense until the reason is known

stop trawling for adverse comments

DM

[hotzenplotz]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/He219/notgonnadothismuchlonger/more/more/more/30701335.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/He219/notgonnadothismuchlonger/more/more/more/30701442.jpg

[SASless]

Helicopter in deadly crash had history of problems

Richard Foot, with file from David Pugliese (OttawaCitizen).
CanWest News Service; with files from Ottawa Citizen

Friday, July 14, 2006

CREDIT: Canadian Press/Andrew Vaughan
The wreckage of a Canadian Forces Cormorant helicopter is hoisted on the deck of coast guard vessel Earl Grey on Thursday.

GREENWOOD, N.S. - Grief settled on this air force town's search-and-rescue community Thursday after three of its airmen died when their Cormorant helicopter crashed into the sea during a training exercise off the coast of Nova Scotia.

The large, yellow CH-149 Cormorant one of the military's most modern helicopters plunged inexplicably into the Atlantic Ocean about a kilometre off Canso, N.S., while in the midst of a routine nighttime training mission with a local fishing boat.

Four of the helicopter's seven crew members, including three pilots, survived the crash and were rescued by fishermen who were training with the helicopter.

Two of the four survivors were reported in serious but non-life-threatening condition in a Halifax hospital on Thursday.

The bodies of Sgt. Duane Brazil, 39, a flight engineer, Master Cpl. Kirk Noel, 33, a search-and-rescue technician, and Cpl. Trevor McDavid, 31, a flight engineer, were recovered from inside the wreckage of the floating helicopter by coast guard divers.

Military officials said they have no explanation for the crash, which is under investigation.

This is the first of Canada's Cormorants to crash since the military acquired the aircraft in 2002 as a replacement for the aging Labrador helicopter fleet.

Despite being so new, the British-built Cormorants have been plagued by technical problems since arriving in Canada.

''There are obviously lots of questions as to what happened, but the answers to this will only come after the investigation is underway and as it completes,'' said Lt.-Col. Tom Hughes, commander of 413 search-and-rescue squadron based out of Greenwood, where flags on the air base were flying at half-mast.

Hughes said there was nothing unusual about the routine training exercise, in which the Cormorant crew was set to practise hoisting its technicians from a hovering helicopter on and off a waiting fishing boat, which is crewed by volunteer members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Ken Snow, one of four Canso fishermen participating in the exercise on-board a crab-fishing boat, said was a hazy night but the weather was otherwise clear, and the ocean was calm.

Snow said the helicopter made two passes overhead. On its second pass, it came in low, and the men on the boat were preparing to have a military technician lowered onto their vessel, when the helicopter simply dropped into the sea.

Snow said there was no explosion, but simply a loud impact bang.

''It was dark and I lost sight of him at the time. But as soon as we heard the bang, (skipper) Fred Munro stopped the boat and we could hear them screaming 'Help us, we're over here, we're in the water.'''

Snow said the fishermen quickly found the Cormorant floating on its side. They pulled two survivors from the sea and found two others sitting on the body of the helicopter. One had a broken leg. Others were hypothermic and complaining of burns from aviation fuel.

Wrapped in sleeping bags, the survivors were taken to shore, while other fishing boats dispatched from Canso arrived at the site to search for the three remaining crewmen.

Later in the morning, a coast guard ship arrived on-site and winched the remains of the Cormorant out of the water.

At the air base in Greenwood, officials said Canada's remaining 14 Cormorants will not be allowed to fly for any reason except emergency search-and-rescue missions until investigators can figure out what caused Thursday's accident.

There were concerns raised about the helicopter in 2004, when maintenance crews discovered cracks in the aircraft's tail rotor.

The cracks might mean that an ''incident, with potential for catastrophic failure, could happen again, to us or to another operator,'' Brig.-Gen. Dwayne Lucas, director general of aerospace equipment programs, warned in a letter to the Agusta-Westland aerospace company in November 2004.

The Defence Department said Thursday it is still dealing with cracks in the Cormorant's tail rotor area, but such problems are decreasing since it was decided to replace a specific part on the helicopter on a more regular basis.

The cracks, which affect all 15 of Canada's Cormorants to varying degrees, prompted restrictions last year on the number of hours the helicopters can be used for training. There were no restrictions for search-and-rescue missions.

As a result of Thursday's accident, the air force has cancelled Cormorant training flights, but the helicopters are still available for essential search-and-rescue operations.

Military funerals will likely take place for the three deceased airmen over the coming days. Two of the three, Brazil and McDavid, were married with children.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed his sorrow Thursday for the three men's families.

''It is my hope that they find some solace in the knowledge that they do not grieve alone,'' he said in a statement. ''Canada mourns the loss of these men.''

For Brazil's family, the death was especially heartbreaking.

Six years ago, Brazil's brother Gary died in a coast guard helicopter crash off the coast of Newfoundland.

A pilot, Gary Brazil had been flying fresh water to an isolated Newfoundland lighthouse when his helicopter fell into Bonavista Bay in May 2000.

Like his older brother six years ago, Duane Brazil was also 39 when he died Thursday. He leaves a wife and two young daughters.

''We don't know how his parents are going to come out of this one, after grieving for so many years for their other son,'' said Pat Brazil, the airmen's aunt, in a telephone interview from her home in Gander, N.L.

''Why such a tragedy should have to happen to one family twice, I just don't understand.''

EDS: Write-thru contains elements of main and sidebars
© CanWest News Service 2006

[sirsaltyhelmet]

Looks like it wasn't the tail rotor

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=0a250937-06a6-4761-a142-3d5e9e18ba31&k=34454 (http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=0a250937-06a6-4761-a142-3d5e9e18ba31&k=34454)