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Ornge helicopter crash

Ornge helicopter crashes in northern Ontario | Globalnews.ca

Quote:

TORONTO – A search and rescue mission is underway after an Ornge air ambulance helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff in northern Ontario Friday morning.

The helicopter, en route to Attawapiskat, departed from Moosonee at approximately 12:00 a.m.

Contact was lost with the aircraft shortly after takeoff, Ornge said in a statement.

Two pilots and two paramedics were onboard at the time of the incident.
A search and rescue team dispatched from CFB Trenton located the downed aircraft in the Moosonee area.

No further information is available regarding the status of the crew members on board, or the aircraft.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has been notified.

Keep fingers crossed for the crew!

skadi

RIP!

Four people confirmed dead in Ornge helicopter crash near Moosonee, Ont. - Winnipeg Free Press

Quote:

MOOSONEE, Ont. - Ontario's air ambulance service is confirming four of its staff are dead after one of its helicopters crashed in a remote area of northern Ontario early this morning.
The Ornge air ambulance service is expressing "deep regret" in its statement that no one survived the accident near Moosonee.
"Everybody at Ornge is deeply saddened by this tragic incident, and our hearts go out to the families and friends of those who lost their lives," Dr. Andrew McCallum, president and CEO of Ornge, said in the statement this morning.
"We will do whatever we can to support them at this difficult time. We will also co-operate fully with the authorities charged with investigating the accident."
Ornge said two pilots and two paramedics were on board the aircraft, but no patients.
It said the family members of those who were on board have been notified.
The air ambulance service said the Sikorsky S76 helicopter left its base in Moosonee en route to Attawapiskat at about midnight and contact was lost with the aircraft shortly after takeoff.
Provincial police in North Bay said they called in military rescue crews, who parachuted down to the "very remote bush area" where the chopper went down.
Christian Cafiti, a spokesman at the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre at CFB Trenton says the helicopter crash site near Moosonee was located this morning and confirms there were no survivors.
Premier Kathleen Wynne said she was "devastated" to learn of the fatal crash.
"The pilots and paramedics of Ornge provide lifesaving services in every region of this province, and my thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of these brave individuals," she said in a statement.
"They lost their lives ensuring the people of this province receive the help they need. Their service and sacrifice will be honoured and remembered."
It wasn't immediately clear what caused the crash. The Transportation Safety Board has been notified and will be investigating.
Further details are expected to be released at a media conference to be held later today.

Any indication of cause factors?

Ornge helicopter crash

RIP

Very saddened to hear this news this morning. I know all the Moosenee crews very well. Was up there working alongside them only last month, our Moosenee base is next door to Ornge. Thinking of families and all at Moose base. Very sorry for your loss.

:(
Arcal76 is flying for them, hope that he's well !
.

Ornge helicopter crash

RIP

The newspaper mentioned the helicopter departed at midnight so it was a night flight.
It does not mention if it was a night VFR or IFR flight.
The article mentions it was a S-76.
My thoughts for the families.

Ornge helicopter crash

Don't quote me, but I heard maybe an onboard fire.

Did the investigators confirm the In-Flight fire on the Oklahoma Crash or was that just a bogus report by an ernest witness?

It is a very sad day for us!!

For those who are worried about me, I am OK since I am not based in Moosonee and I fly the 139. But I worked there and know the place well.
It is very sad for us and we now have to wait to determine what's happened.
The aircraft went down just after take-off runway 06, 2 SM from the runway.
We don't know more.
We do not do IFR flight because we do not have alternate, but as soon you take-off at night from the runway, it is dark, dark, dark and it is an instrument flight, it is worst when it rains.
So, no speculation until we get information's please.

Names of those killed and some general information about the flight.

4 Ornge helicopter crash victims ID'd as from Ontario, Quebec - Sudbury - CBC News

Are they an NVG program?

No NVG, and that isn't how night VFR works in Canada. You lay out night routes the same as IFR routes, but with lower terrain clearance, and narrower corridors, which matters not in these days of GPS. Pretty flat at Moosonee. You'd punch in the verified and stored route to Attawapiskat into the Garmin 530 (dual install on the S76), takeoff, climb to altitude, and then wait till you got there, if visual with the lights then line up with the pad and land. None of this stooging around trying to maintain visual contact even with NVG. Nothing there to stay visual on anyway.

Weather shouldn't have been a problem, viz was reported as 10 miles in light rain, but you've got good gear, two pilots, planned safe route, redundant navigation. As Arcal76 points out, it isn't an inadvertent IMC situation, you don't expect to be able to see anything after takeoff so you fly it like IFR.

.7 miles from takeoff would be just a little over 30 seconds after lifting.

Like IFR but without Alternates but not IFR although flying on Instruments the whole way....no NVG's....interesting concept. Very similar to Night VFR over unlit areas of the USA....less the NVG's as pretty commonly used down South.

What kind of Instrument Approaches available in the area mentioned?

Would having NVG's be an improvement?

Thanks for the insight into the night operations.

Both Moosonee and Attawapiskat have conventional (NDB/VOR) and RNAV/GNSS approaches, lights on the runway. MOCA is only 1400', 120nm run. Not much difference night VFR or IFR if the ceiling is half reasonable. Would NVG help? Maybe if the crew couldn't keep it right side up on instruments, but that's pretty unlikely given their experience, and they attend the sim at WPB annually. 76 is a pretty sweet IFR platform.

Thoughts and prayers are with the families.

Everything really sounds like a CFIT accident so far. Dark night, no reference, accident happened just after departing. The S76's IFR capabilities and equipment don't play a role during this critical part of the flight.

Having flown Air Ambulance both for CHL up north and Helijet out west there's nothing to see on these blackhole departures. Rotating into the ink from a towering takeoff and then transitioning to instruments in a nose down attitude with little airspeed and height the margin for error is very small. It's challenging for the most experienced crews.

May they all rest in peace...........

Coming off the end of the moose runway at night and in the **** one of the toughest moments in rotary wing aviation. I don't have the balls to do it any more and definitely not in the analogue A model 76. Guys flying up there are well lead and developed up to Captain - it's not a workplace that tolerates failure and I'm sorry for the families and for all the ornge crews. There is no better IFR/NVFR operation on planet earth.

This tragic accident hits far too close to home. No anonymous internet condolences from me, but I am saddened to see more families touched by tragedy in our industry. Every person we lose is too many.

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CADORS: Report

I can't recall what avionics and autopilot fit IMY had installed. What I do recall, the 76A's had a large variance from phase II/III up to fully coupled Sperry AP's with little standardization. As a quick read through this thread already reveals, not everyone has the same idea of what kit was onboard.

Malabo, I do not recall any of those machines having dual 530's. Has the fit been improved that much over the last few years?

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SAS, I would say that in the northern bases, NVG would be more helpful than the south. A lot more of the areas lacking cultural lighting so even a very high overcast can reduce ground references to essentially zero. It is also seasonal as in the northern summer, dark becomes more relative and shorter. It's not the arctic circle by any means, but better.

That operation does not do 'scene calls' (unprepared sites) at night, only airports and approved helipads. The province of Ontario has for many years created a very good infrastructure to support the EMS operations. Dispatch is integrated with all other ambulance resources: airplane, helicopter, land vehicles, etc. A very good system.

Having a fully slaved three or four axis Autopilot sure makes for a better situation than the mixed bag of Phase II/III non-Slaved SAS system that the early A's came out with. The mixed bag/non-standard Cockpit situation is also an extra burden that need not be tolerated.

Look back to the Air Methods Bell 412 Crash at Bluefield WV, for why that is so important. Four Fatalities in that one too. That was the Winston-Salem Baptist Hospital Crash that I am thinking of that had that as a significant finding.