TSB investigation into MRU plane crash reveals unknown cause
Posted Feb 22, 2018 11:33 am.
Last Updated Feb 22, 2018 12:23 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Transportation Safety Board says it doesn’t know what caused a plane operated by Mount Royal University’s flight school to lose control and crash northwest of Calgary.
The crash a year ago killed pilot Jeffrey Bird and co-pilot Reynold Johnson, who were both instructors with the program.
A safety board investigation report says that for unknown reasons the aircraft started spinning during an exercise about a half hour after it took off from the Calgary Springbank Airport.
John Lee with the TSB tells 660NEWS that part of the issue is an aircraft like the one involved in the crash aren’t required to have flight or data recorders, making it harder to find crucial information.
“”I’m sure it’s frustrating for the family and friends of the two that died in the accident, that we don’t have a concrete explanation for why it happened. But again, those are the limitations with this size of aircraft, where they’re not required by regulation to have crash-worthy cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders.”
Bird and Johnson managed to get the plane out of the spin, but by then there was not enough altitude to recover from the ensuing dive.
The board says Mount Royal took a number of safety actions after the crash, acquired different aircraft for multi-engine training and revised operating procedures.
It also clarified roles for when two instructors are on staff training flights together.
