Probe into 2017 Tweed helicopter crash raises seatbelt concerns
The remains of a Hydro One Aerospatiale AS 350 B-2 helicopter which crashed near Tweed in December 2017, killing all four people aboard. Photo from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada
The helicopter crash happened in the area of Upper Flinton Road, south of Flinton and north of Highway 7.
BELLEVILLE – In the wake of a helicopter crash that killed four people near the village of Tweed, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada is calling on Transport Canada to clarify regulations for aviation safety belts.
The recommendation was released Wednesday as part of the board’s investigation report on the crash. Three Hydro One power-line technicians and the helicopter’s pilot were killed when the aircraft went down near Upper Flinton Road on Dec. 14, 2017.
The newly released report says that the three passengers were not wearing any restraints during the flight and were ejected when the crash occurred. They died from impact with the ground or the helicopter, it says.
Each seat in the helicopter was equipped with a seatbelt and a detachable shoulder harness, according to the report, but the shoulder harnesses had been rolled up and taped with electrical tape, making them unusable. The lap restraints were functional, but the technicians were not wearing them.
The report speculates that the reason could have been that “they perceived the risk on the short flight (about four kilometres from a hydro tower to a staging area) to be low, or because they found it difficult to attach the lap straps over their cold weather gear.”
The pilot was wearing the shoulder harness and seatbelt, the report says. He died in the cockpit when the helicopter struck the ground.
The helicopter after it was recovered from the crash scene. The three passengers in it were launched from it while it was still airborne, investigators say. They and the pilot were killed. Photo from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada
The crash itself was the result of cargo not being properly fastened to the external platform of the helicopter. Fastening equipment outside an aircraft was not common practice for Hydro One, so there was no controlled way to do it, according to the report.
About half a kilometre away from the staging area that was the helicopter’s destination, the report says, a four-foot-long empty canvas bag with a metal clip came loose and struck the rear of the helicopter, causing severe damage to the tail rotor. The pilot was initially able to retain control, but lost it when he began his descent.
When the helicopter was 23 metres from the ground, the tail rotor, gearbox and vertical fin broke off. The helicopter crashed and was destroyed.
The TSB said it has reviewed aviation accidents that happened between 1990 and 2018 in which aircraft were equipped with detachable shoulder harnesses and found 37 deaths among people not wearing the harnesses. In many cases, it said, the use of shoulder harnesses … could have improved the odds of survival.”
Under Canadian Aviation Regulations, a safety belt is defined as “a personal restraint system consisting of either a lap strap or a lap strap combined with a shoulder harness,” TSB chair Kathy Fox is quoted as saying in the board’s news release about the report Wednesday.
“Because of the word either, pilots and passengers may interpret the regulation to mean that the use of the lap strap alone is sufficient,” Fox continued. “We want that uncertainty removed.”
The report says the chances of survival in such an accident would improve if that ambiguity in the rules were removed and the shoulder harness were made mandatory. It concludes by making a recommendation to that effect to Transport Canada.
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