Crash focuses issues

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/01/2012 (5263 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The fatal landing Tuesday of a Piper Navajo operated by a Manitoba company with a recent history of spectacular accidents should focus attention both on this particular company and upon the regulation of small, commercial aircraft in Canada.

If the crash of Keystone Air’s plane proves to have been avoidable, the federal Transport Department must press Keystone to show why it ought to be allowed back into the skies. This is Keystone’s second fatal accident in a decade. A crash landing near Logan Avenue and McPhillips Street in 2002 killed one passenger; in 2000, a Keystone plane crashed into Assiniboine Forest, but no one died. In both, pilot error was cited. Subsequent inspections by Transport Canada found significant problems and grounded the company. In 2004, the department suspended its air operator certificate, triggering a change of management and Keystone’s hiring of an outside company for maintenance.

The conditions at North Spirit Lake, in northwestern Ontario, on Tuesday reportedly were poor, with near-zero visibility. The plane went down half a kilometre from the landing strip, on the frozen lake, killing four of five people aboard. The community was served by an uncontrolled, gravel runway. In such conditions pilots rely on navigational aids, if available, or head to another community.

Immediate suspicion has fallen upon the weather. There is a variety of good, modern navigation technology, using ground or satellite signals, to guide pilots especially in poor visibility. Each has weaknesses, but they are superior to flying by sight alone in a snowstorm.

Keystone uses a single pilot in its operations. That is something Transport Minister Denis Lebel should have reviewed. Decisions made in stressful situations benefit from feedback co-pilots can offer. Transport Canada has cut back on its inspections of airlines, under a system that relies heavily on self-monitoring and emphasizes monitoring companies with more troubling records.

Mr. Lebel should give serious thought to a recommendation before him now that would require smaller, older commercial aircraft to be equipped with modern navigational technology. This would hike the cost of flying to remote communities for whom companies such as Keystone play a vital role. It is a price, however, that pales in comparison to the risk underscored by tragedies such as those at North Split Lake.