The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) cautioned the aviation community on Wednesday that flying in low visibility is causing too many deaths in Canada.
The revelation comes with the release of the TSB investigation report into the November 2008 plane crash that claimed seven lives on Thormanby Island. The TSB found the flight was likely conducted below weather minimums required for visual flight rules (VFR). As a result, the pilot did not see the island until seconds before impact.
"There are some hard lessons that need to be learned and re-learned in aviation and this is one of them," said TSB investigator Bill Yearwood during a news conference in Vancouver on Wednesday morning. "VFR pilots must be able to see the ground below and ahead of them at all times. It's almost impossible to avoid obstacles and rising ground when clouds are low, the visibility is poor and you're flying at twice the speed of cars on the highway."
According to the TSB, aircraft colliding with land or water under crew control are among the deadliest accidents in aviation. They account for five per cent of accidents, but 25 per cent of fatalities in Canada. The risk is even greater when aircraft venture into mountainous terrain in poor weather. That is why collisions with land and water is one of the nine critical safety issues on the TSB's highly-publicized safety watchlist.
"Competition is strong and customers can put pressure on companies to complete flights," added Yearwood. "We need to see better decisions from companies and pilots to prevent these kinds of accidents."
The TSB report went on to say that Pacific Coast Airlines management had met with the 54-year-old pilot Peter McLeod three times to discuss concerns they had with his decision making. The last meeting, about three months before the accident, was held because management was concerned that he was completing trips in what other pilots deemed to be adverse wind and sea conditions. "The company believed that this behaviour was causing other pilots to feel pressured to fly in those conditions and was also influencing customer expectations," said the TSB report. "At least one fishing lodge owner favoured the accident pilot because he flew customers in and out when other Pacific Coastal pilots would not because they felt that the conditions were too risky."
The TSB report stated it was McLeod's choice to take off in bad weather at 10 a.m. on Nov. 16, 2008 and that he gave his passengers the option to get off the plane, saying that it would be a tough flight.
According to the TSB, since the crash, Pacific Coastal Airlines has changed its flight dispatch system meaning pilots can't make that decision on their own.
Yearwood said the TSB investigated the crash for the purpose of advancing transportation safety and that it was not the function of the TSB or their role to judge whether or not the pilot or Pacific Coastal Airlines was negligent in this accident.
Thomas Wilson was the only passenger to survive the crash, and the information he provided to TSB investigators was crucial according to Yearwood and lead investigator Travis Shelongosky who was also on hand at Wednesday's press conference.
The crash involved an amphibious Grumman Goose that departed from the south terminal of the Vancouver International Airport for a flight to Powell River where the pilot was going to drop off his seven passengers at a Plutonic Power Corp. work camp near Toba Inlet.
Approximately 19 minutes into its flight, the aircraft crashed in dense fog on Thormanby Island.
A search and rescue operation was launched and the lone survivor was located by members of the Halfmoon Bay Coast Guard Auxiliary on the eastern shoreline of the island around 2 p.m. on Nov. 16. The aircraft was located about 30 minutes later on a peak near Spyglass Hill. McLeod and six other passengers were found dead at the crash scene and the aircraft was destroyed by the impact and post-crash fire. The emergency locator transmitter was destroyed and did not transmit.
"The pilot's skill and confidence can be detrimental because it leaves no room for error," Yearwood told The Province newspaper. "In that reduced visibility he wasn't able to respond fast enough."
Still, the investigation did conclude McLeod was climbing quickly and nearly cleared the trees on the mountain peak that he smashed into.
"With 100 feet more visibility or 10 less knots of speed, he might have done it," Yearwood said. "He was very close to clearing those trees."
Between 2000 and 2009, there were 129 bad-weather-caused crashes across Canada similar to the Thormanby Island accident, and 128 total fatalities, the TSB report stated.
"The TSB will be looking to industry and Transport Canada to make improvements to prevent this type of accident from happening again," Yearwood added.
