Resolute Bay crash survivors, families of eight deceased file lawsuits

Transportation Safety Board investigators comb through the wreckage of First Air’s flight 6560 which crashed Aug. 20 near Resolute Bay’s airport. (FILE PHOTO)

This photo shows the hillside overlooking the Resolute Bay airport shortly after the Aug. 20 crash. (FILE PHOTO)

This is how the airport at Resolute Bay looked in August, 2011, shortly before the Aug. 20 crash took place. (FILE PHOTO)

Three survivors and the families of eight deceased persons have filed lawsuits against First Air, Nav Canada and the Department of National Defence to seek compensation for damages inflicted on them by the crash of First Air flight 6560 near Resolute Bay in August 2011.

Twelve people died after a First Air Boeing 737-200C aircraft smashed into a hillside close to the Resolute Bay airport Aug. 20. 2011, in one of the worst air disasters ever recorded in Nunavut.

The statements of claim have been filed in the Nunavut Court of Justice by the crash’s three survivors, Robin Wyllie, Nicole Williamson, Gabrielle Aleeasuk Pelky (represented by her mother Brenda), and the families of eight people who died: Martin Bergmann, 55, Cheyenne Mary-Jane Eckalook, six, Lise Linda Lamoureux, 23, Steven Michael Girouard, 38, Randolph Alexander Reid, 56, Michael Rideout, 65, Raymond Pitre, 39, and Clarence Tibbo, 49.

One statement of claim, filed May 4 by Sheila Mary Bergmann McRae, the widow of Bergmann, targets only First Air and Nav Canada, and does not allege any negligence by DND. Bergmann was the director of the Polar Continental Shelf Project, a federal agency, at the time of his death.

The other statement of claim, filed May 16 by the three survivors and seven of the deceased persons’ families, names Bradley Air Services (First Air’s legal name), Nav Canada, and the attorney general of Canada (the Department of National Defence).

The statements say their claims will be tried at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit, within a year of filing.

First Air crew members Blair Rutherford, co-captain David Hare, and flight attendants Ann Marie Chassie and Ute Merritt are not listed on the statements of claim, filed by lawyer Adrian C. Wright of Yellowknife and GFY paralegal services in Iqaluit.

The claims seek personal damages for survivors Wyllie, Williams and Pelky and what are called survivor and fatal damages for the deceased passengers’ beneficiaries, who include parents, widows and common-law widows.

The two statements of claim make similar allegations, saying that “at all material times, First Air was responsible for the conduct of Flight 6560,” and that Nav Canada, which owned and operated the navigation services, was responsible for navigation.

The lawsuit naming DND alleges that the Attorney General of Canada, through DND, was at the time of the accident responsible for providing air traffic control services, including flight information, aeronautical information, airport advisory services and electronic aids.

That statement also claims that First Air, Nav Canada and the Crown should pay damages to compensate for their pain and suffering.

The survivors want compensation for loss of enjoyment of life, loss of income, loss of capacity to perform household work, past and future medical and rehabilitation costs, and care.

The families of those who died want money to compensate them, among other things, for pain and suffering prior to death, loss of “guidance care and companionship,” loss of personal effects, loss of support, loss of future earnings, grief and funeral expenses.

Both statement of claims note that the Resolute Bay airport was equipped with an instrument landing system for runway 35T, which consists of two ground-based pieces of equipment intended to provide inbound aircraft with guidance to align aircraft and help aircraft descend to the runway for touchdown.

On Aug. 20, Nav Canada and DND had an agreement “the details of which are presently unknown to the plantiffs” to operate Resolute Bay airport and the surrounding airspace as an air traffic controlled facility, the statements allege.

For the summer sovereignty exercise, Operation Nanook, which was underway in Resolute Bay at the time of the crash, the DND had established a temporary air traffic control tower and a ground-based radar system at the airport which “was in operation at the time of the accident and was capable of providing DND air traffic control personnel with detailed information on the location and speed of aircraft inbound to Resolute Bay airport.”

Air traffic control personnel were in communication with Flight 6560 “and were or ought to have been” providing pilots with detailed information about the aircraft’s location.

At the time of the accident several aircraft were inbound to Resolute Bay airport.

This “created a significant workload for DND traffic control personnel at Resolute Bay airport and required coordination of activities between Nav Canada air control in Edmonton and DND air traffic control at Resolute Bay airport,” the statements allege.

The doomed flight was cleared for landed when it struck a hill east of runway 35T.

“For reasons presently unknown to the plaintiffs, the pilots of Flight 6560 failed to realize that the aircraft was not aligned with Runway 35T and was descending into terrain until it was too late to take evasive action.”

As for specific negligence, the 10 plaintiffs in their common statement allege that Nav Canada and DND didn’t make sure the navigation system worked: they failed to tell the pilots they were heading towards the hill, they didn’t tell the First Air pilots the approach was unsafe and they didn’t ensure that “adequate air traffic control personnel” were on hand.

They also claim there was a lack of coordination between DND and Nav Canada “leading to confusing and uncertainty as to the specific responsibilities of the on-duty air traffic controllers.”

They allege Nav Canada didn’t brief the military controllers about civilian air traffic procedures and that there was a lack of “properly trained air traffic personnel who were providing air traffic control.”

Their statement alleges First Air is negligent because its pilots did not realize they were descending into terrain and failed to use the navigation equipment at Resolute Bay and did not “properly” communicate with air traffic controllers.

The statement also details the injuries the survivors suffered, including multiple fractures,”extensive lacerations” and “psychological harm.”

In her separate statement of claim, Sheila Mary Bergmann McRae seeks similar damages on behalf of her late husband’s four children and his parents.

But she only attributes negligence to Nav Canada and First Air and does not seek damages from DND.

The preliminary Transportation Safety Board Investigation, released in January, shows the flight crew attempted an aborted landing two seconds before impact.

But TSB investigators have yet to explain what caused the crash.

When released, the full report will look at the causes and contributing factors that led the crash, but will not assign fault.

This photo shows the scene of devastation several days after the Aug. 20, 2011 crash of a First Air jet near the Resolute Bay airport. (FILE PHOTO)