Originally Posted by
JohnDixson
CH,sorry to report that at least here in South Florida,the Chronicle/Herald requires a subscription before one can read the article.
for some reason it says the message is too short to post, so I’m writing this! ( I guess it doesn’t recognise text in quotes?)
SCOTT TAYLOR
On April 29 an RCAF Cyclone helicopter crashed in the Ionian Sea while returning to HMCS Fredericton from a training mission. Word of this tragedy was first reported by Greek news outlets and it was soon circulating on Canadian social media platforms.
Most mainstream media reporters were leery that this story could in fact be ‘fake news’ as the Greek media were reporting the downed helicopter to be a Sikorsky Sea King, which are no longer in service with the RCN.
When DND did issue a formal statement on April 30, Canadians were advised that “One member of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) was killed … and five other members remain missing following an accident involving a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CH-148 Cyclone helicopter.”
We were also informed that “HMCS Fredericton and NATO allies continue to search for the other five members of the helicopters crew.” Details on the cause of the crash were unknown and media were told the crew of HMCS Fredericton “had lost contact with the helicopter” prior to the crash.
When this story did break in Canada, with official confirmation and complete with the name of the individual killed and the names of the five “confirmed missing” it resonated throughout the military community like a wildfire. The scenario painted was that of a mystery crash sparking a major search and rescue operation by the NATO naval task group.
Commentators pondered the vastness of the Ionian Sea posing a challenge for the searchers, and social media posters prayed for the rescue of the five missing members.
Late in the afternoon on May 1, a full 48 hours after the crash, DND issued an updated statement wherein the ‘confirmed missing’ were now “presumed deceased.” No longer was it a ‘search and rescue’ operation, it had transitioned into a ‘search and recovery’ task.
As a nation united in grief Canada mourned the loss of Captains Brenden Ian MacDonald, Kevin Hagen, Maxime Miron-Morin, Sub-Lieutenants Abbigail Cowbrough, Matthew Pyke and Master-Corporal Matthew Cousins.
Once the initial shock of this tragedy subsided, additional details of the crash began to surface. It turns out that the Cyclone was in sight of the Fredericton at the time of the accident. In full view in fact as the helicopter was allegedly doing a low level flypast as part of a photo-shoot when it suddenly and violently plunged into the waves.
DND has since confirmed that eyewitness testimony will be part of their investigation into the cause of the crash. With this being the case one has to wonder why the Canadian media, myself included, were being fed such deceptive details in the initial 48 hours.
The Fredericton did not ‘lose contact’ with the helicopter if the crew actually watched it crash. The search site would have involved a few hundred square feet of ocean, not the entire Ionian Sea.
What makes no sense is why someone in the DND communication chain-of-command would have felt it a good idea to change the details to add some unnecessary mystery to the incident, not to mention generating false hope among friends and family of the five ‘confirmed missing.’
There would be no need to cover up the fact that the helicopter was doing a photo pass at the time, as everyone familiar with RCN operations knows this is a routine exercise.
I understand that DND would want to have complete certainty before announcing the death of the crew to the public. However if from the outset we were told the Cyclone crash was witnessed by sailors aboard Fredericton and no survivors were seen, that would have been more accurate.
In this era of ‘fake news’ by malign actors we need our official sources to provide us with accurate details. In this case the DND was inexplicably off the mark