The MGB certification is not going to go away:
Correct.
It remains a political issue here.
Certification of S-92 needs change: widow
Published: March 23, 2011 2:57 p.m.
Last modified: March 23, 2011 3:02 p.m.
OTTAWA - The widow of one of 17 people killed in a helicopter crash off Newfoundland two years ago is questioning why Transport Canada certified the aircraft when it "failed an important test."
Lori Chynn is pressing the federal government to review its certification standards and explain why it gave the Sikorsky S-92 an airworthiness certificate when it couldn't meet a certain requirement.
In a statement Wednesday, Chynn and two federal NDP MPs said it was known years before the Newfoundland crash that the helicopter couldn't fly for 30 minutes without oil.
In a letter to Transport Minister Chuck Strahl, she said she wanted to know why "this type of helicopter (was) given an airworthiness certificate when it failed an important test."
Chynn said more needs to be done to protect workers travelling long distances to get to offshore oil platforms, like the one her husband worked on as a nurse.
"I believe that we must learn from this tragedy and do what is necessary to ensure the safety of those who continue to work offshore," she said at a news conference in Ottawa.
"Safety must come before profit."
Chynn's husband, John Pelley, died along with 16 others when the S-92 they were in went down in waters off St. John's as it headed to a rig. Only one person survived.
A Canadian investigation into the crash showed that some of the titanium gearbox studs broke, causing a critical loss of oil.
Jack Harris, NDP transport critic, said Wednesday that aviation standards require a helicopter to fly for a minimum of a half-hour without any oil in the main gearbox.
But he said a certification test in August 2002 showed the Sikorsky couldn't meet that 30-minute standard, failing after 11 minutes of dry operation.
Still, Harris said Transport Canada certified the S-92 as safe to fly, with the caveat that a complete loss of lubricant was extremely remote.
He said the government also didn't address the certification issue when the same model of helicopter crashed in Australia in 2008 due to a loss of lubricant in the gearbox.
Harris said Canadian officials examined that gearbox and found "the Sikorsky S-92 did not meet the 30-minute dry run capability and it had a problem about the loss of oil.
"Yet no changes were made to the certification of the S-92."
Harris said after the Newfoundland crash, the studs were ordered to be replaced with steel ones but the helicopter still lacks the 30-minute dry run capability.
Transport Canada was not available for comment.
Metro - Certification of S-92 needs change: widow