OTTAWA—Ontario’s air ambulance service has been fined twice by Transport Canada for allowing pilots to fly without proper training, federal records show.
ORNGE
was slapped with two violations of Canadian Aviation Regulations for
allowing pilots to fly in 2013 without having fulfilled the necessary
training requirements and had to pay a $4,000 fine for each offense.
ORNGE’s aviation operations have been in the spotlight since the May
2013 crash of a Sikorsky S-76C helicopter at Moosonee, Ont., killed the
two pilots and two paramedics onboard.
Though not related to the fatal crash, the enforcement action by
Transport Canada shows that the agency has been under increased scrutiny
by the federal regulator.
ORNGE spokesperson James MacDonald said it has paid the fines.
“ORNGE takes these matters seriously and accepts Transport Canada’s
findings. We worked collaboratively with the regulator to ensure these
matters were addressed as quickly as possible,” he said.
In the first case, a flight crew member in Moosonee was allowed to
fly a Sikorsky S76A helicopter without having completed controlled
flight into terrain avoidance training (CFIT) as required by ORNGE’s
training manual, MacDonald said.
Controlled flight into terrain happens when pilots inadvertently fly
their aircraft into the ground, usually in conditions of poor visibility
or darkness. It could be one of the causes of the May 2013 accident,
which happened at night.
In the second infraction, a Sudbury-based AW139 helicopter pilot had
not received technical ground training on the helicopter,” MacDonald
said.
“Both pilots have received the appropriate training, and ORNGE now
meets or exceeds the regulator’s requirements for CFIT training,” he
said.
MacDonald said the agency has also taken steps to avoid a recurrence,
including implementing an electronic system to track pilot training.
Transport Canada spokesperson Silvia Di Tiero said the shortcomings
were found during a “process inspection” in June 2013, just weeks after
the accident.
“The department issued two administrative monetary penalties to the
company for issues identified in the process inspection. The company has
addressed the issues,” she said.
The department came under fire in June during a meeting of the
Commons transport committee when NDP MP Mike Sullivan questioned the
apparent lack of enforcement action by Transport Canada on ORNGE.
“I want to know why Transport Canada is not bothering to enforce its own regulations,” Sullivan said.
But Martin Eley, director-general of civil aviation, told Sullivan
the department had hit ORNGE with monetary penalties and suggested
further fines could be coming if an ongoing investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada turns up further evidence of problems.
“We have applied monetary penalties to ORNGE. Certainly, if further
evidence comes from the TSB, we will respond to that,” Eley told the
committee in June.“We went in there. We did inspections. Some things were corrected. We did apply monetary penalties.”
In May, ORNGE was hit with 17 health and safety charges alleging that the pilots at the controls of the helicopter that crashed in Moosonee were improperly trained, lacked experience in night operations and should never have been paired together.
Transport Canada has raised questions about ORNGE’s air operations in the past. In December 2012, Transport Canada inspector Ken Walsh asked about ORNGE’s policy to avoid pairing two inexperienced pilots on the same flight. And he also asked about so-called “black hole” procedures, used when the combination of night sky and lack of ground lights leaves pilots with few visual references.
- Story: http://www.thestar.com
Transportation Safety Board
ORNGE’s aviation operations have been in the spotlight since the May 2013 crash of a Sikorsky S-76C helicopter at Moosonee, Ont., killed the two pilots and two paramedics onboard.
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