Crash report repeats call for better helicopter pilot training

For the second time this year, transportation safety investigators called for improved training for helicopter pilots flying in low-visibility Arctic conditions so that crashes can be avoided.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada on Tuesday released its a report into the June 28, 2023, crash of a Bell 206L helicopter on Devon Island, between Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay.

The board’s recommendations were similar to those it made last month, stemming from its investigation of a 2021 helicopter crash in Nunavut — referred to as a Griffith Island accident — that left three people dead.

Last month, the board recommended pilots be taught the skills necessary to recover when they lose their visual references to the ground and horizon, that technology be added to commercial helicopters to assist pilots to avoid and recover from those situations, and that training in reduced-visibility situations be enhanced.

In the 2023 Devon Island crash, three people on board escaped with minor injuries.

The helicopter, operated by Custom Helicopters Ltd., departed Truelove Inlet on Devon Island at 9:36 a.m. bound for the Devon Ice Cap on Devon Island, according to the report.

The helicopter reached the glacier, but the pilot decided there was not enough surface visibility to land safely. He returned to Truelove Inlet to retrieve markers that could be dropped on the ice to improve landing conditions.

The helicopter returned to the glacier by 10:39 a.m., flying at low altitude and low speed to drop the markers, and land.

However, the pilot lost sight of rocks he had been using as a visual reference and entered inadvertent instrument meteorological conditions — meaning he had lost all visual reference to the ground and the horizon.

The helicopter lost altitude and crashed into the snow, rolling onto its side on impact, the report said. Three people on board suffered minor injuries.

The outcome could have been much worse, Mike Sharpe, the investigator in charge, said in an interview Tuesday.

“This crash on Devon Island had the potential to be just as serious” as the helicopter crash under similar conditions in 2021 near Resolute Bay that killed three people, including a polar bear biologist.

But in the Devon Island incident, because “they were attempting to put markers down, the energy level of the aircraft was low,” Sharpe said.

With technology that’s available and better training, situations like these can be avoided, he said.

Sharpe said the difference between the fatal incident in 2021, known as the Griffith Island accident, and the Devon Island crash was like comparing a crash on the highway to a fender-bender in a parking lot.

The terrain and year-round snow cover in the area can be a problem, Sharpe said, but added “it can be avoided with planning and careful execution.”