Crash report fuels political fears in Lifeflight privatization

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This article was published 17/06/2019 (2688 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — A medevac plane that crashed in April before reaching Churchill didn’t have enough fuel to reach its destination, according to a federal watchdog.

“The flight crew declared a mayday due to a fuel issue,” reads an initial report from the Transportation Safety Board.

Manitoba politicians fighting against the imminent privatization of the province’s air ambulance services say the preliminary finding bolsters their case for keeping Lifeflight public.

A Keewatin Air flight crash-landed April 24, just short of the Gillam’s airport runway. It was transporting two crew and two nurses to Churchill from Winnipeg, but the plane lacked enough fuel to make the final 270 kilometres.

“Both engines flamed out due to insufficient fuel,” reads the TSB notice. The plane touched down on a frozen lake before skidding onto the tarmac, with its wheels popped off. Nobody was injured.

NDP MP Niki Ashton said the issue has her constituents concerned, especially as Keewatin Air is owned by the parent company that would likely replace Lifeflight.

“The Conservatives’ privatization agenda is going to put lives at risk,” said Ashton, who raised the issue with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week in question period.

“We are going to continue to work with provinces and partners to ensure that access to health care is protected,” Trudeau replied.

Liberal MP Doug Eyolfson (Charleswood — St. James — Assiniboia — Headingley) said Ottawa ought to consider withholding health transfers to Manitoba, because of concerns over safety.

The former physician used to staff Lifeflight trips for more than a decade, and has raised the privatization with Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor.

“The concern has tremendously revved-up,” said Eyolfson.

Keewatin Air said it’s investigating the April incident, and alluded to making unspecified changes.

“We take all information we get very seriously, and take appropriate actions,” said David White, vice-president of parent company Exchange Income Corp. “I cannot talk about personnel matters in the public.”

The Pallister government has insisted it’s looking for efficiencies in the system without compromising safety.

The provincial Liberals have asked the auditor general to probe how the contract was rewarded, and whether slower aircraft are being used.

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont noted most First Nations medical transportation is covered by the federal government.

“They haven’t been talked to. And if that service isn’t being properly provided, it may actually put tens of millions of dollars of federal funding at risk,” he told reporters Monday.

Both the provincial NDP and Liberals have linked the 2017 death of a boy evacuated from St. Theresa Point with the actions of a private company. The Free Press reviewed documents about the incident, but was not able to confirm the sequence of events.

— with files from Larry Kusch and Jessica Botelho-Urbanski

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca