Transport minister's response meaningless: families of Cougar 491 disaster

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Robert Decker, the lone survivor of a helicopter crash that killed 17 people off Newfoundland's east coast, arrives at the inquiry into the incident in St. John's, N.L. on Thursday Nov. 5, 2009. The lone survivor and families of passengers killed in a helicopter crash off Newfoundland say Ottawa hasn't answered any of the safety questions they raised almost nine months ago in a letter they received from Transport Minister Denis Lebel.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - The lone survivor and families of passengers killed in a helicopter crash off Newfoundland say Ottawa hasn't answered any of the safety questions they raised almost nine months ago in a letter they received from Transport Minister Denis Lebel.

In a letter released Tuesday, the law firm for victims of Cougar Flight 491 rebuffs Lebel's reply to the families.

"Unfortunately, your letter does not provide any meaningful response to the serious questions raised in our letter of Feb. 18, 2011," says the letter from the Vancouver-based firm of Camp Fiorante Matthews.

Lebel offers condolences to the families in his letter dated Monday, but does not answer questions about the Sikorsky chopper that crashed on March 12, 2009.

Survivor Robert Decker and families of the 15 deceased passengers want to know why Canadian regulators didn't take action right after the same chopper model made an emergency landing in Australia. That close call in July 2008 involved the same gearbox problems that led to the Newfoundland crash eight months later.

In the letter to Lebel, the law firm asks how the gearbox was certified.

"We understand the government of Canada places 'high priority on a harmonized approach to ensure the safety of international aviation,' as stated in your letter. We presume this was true before the accident as well, and yet 17 people are dead and one seriously injured as a result of a main gearbox failure which Transport Canada had deemed to be extremely remote.

"The fundamental question ... remains — did Transport Canada succumb to pressure from the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) or the manufacturer to certify this gearbox or did it simply fail to recognize a serious safety/certification issue?"

Two of three titanium studs securing the oil filter assembly to the Cougar chopper's main gearbox sheared off in flight. Eleven minutes after the pilots reported a sudden loss of oil pressure, the helicopter lost steering control and plunged into the frigid sea off Newfoundland.

Those studs have since been replaced with steel parts on Sikorsky S-92 helicopters.

FAA regulators in the U.S. had certified Sikorsky's main gearbox to operate for 30 minutes after losing oil, basing the decision on its view that the chances of a loss of oil were "extremely remote."

The Transportation Safety Board blamed the loss of oil in the gearbox for the crash, along with several other factors including training issues and the way the gearbox oil filter was installed.

The report recommended that the FAA, Transport Canada and the European Aviation Safety Agency remove the "extremely remote" provision from the safety certification requirements. In practical terms, that meant the manufacturers would be required to come up with a change to the gearbox to ensure it could keep running after losing oil.

An FAA memo last April, posted on the Transportation Safety Board's website, said a rule change for gearboxes will be proposed for future aircraft. But requiring new gearboxes on existing helicopters would be costly for the industry, it said.

Lebel's letter says he's working with U.S. and European regulators to reach agreement on any changes.

Transport Canada is also reviewing "other offshore helicopter operations, such as North Sea operations, to determine if other specific regulations are needed," it says.

The families say Transport Canada must explain why it certified the Sikorsky gearbox.

"This question needs to be answered in order to ensure that this type of failure of the regulatory system is not repeated," says the letter signed by lawyer Joe Fiorante on behalf of the victims.