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Skeezix, was this from your group?
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Posted by: merczephyr

CANSO, N.S. (CP) — Three military personnel were killed and four injured early Thursday morning in a helicopter crash during a Canadian Forces search and rescue training exercise off Canso.

The air force said the CH-149 Cormorant helicopter from 413 Transport and Rescue Squadron ditched in the water around 12:30 a.m.

Names of the victims and the injured were not released.

Military spokesman Capt. John Pulchny said the four injured personnel had been rescued shortly after the crash, while the bodies of the three dead had been pulled from the water mid-morning.

“The Cormorant helicopter that was ditched at 12:30 this morning has been recovered and is on board the coast guard ship Earl Grey,” he said in an interview from CFB Greenwood.

“As well, the remains have been recovered and are in the process of being transported to Halifax for an autopsy.”

A flight safety team was en route to the scene from Ottawa to conduct an inspection of the aircraft.

He said one of the survivors was taken to hospital in Halifax, while the other three injured crew members remained in the Canso area.

Pulchny said the cause of the crash was not immediately clear, but added that the crew was practising hoist training with a coast guard ship around that time. That usually involves lowering or raising someone or something to the water.

“We’re trying to piece together when did it happen,” he said.

He added that there were no distress calls prior to the accident, which was reported to him following a 911 call from someone on the ground or water.

“As far as we understand, it (the crash) just came out of the blue — a sudden call by a coast guard vessel, in fact, that the helicopter had ditched,” said Pulchny.

Officials with Environment Canada said the weather was good at the time, with no cloud cover and very light winds.

A witness who saw the Cormorant pass overhead said he thought it odd the aircraft appeared not to have any lights on. Moments later, he heard a huge bang.

“It was just like a big boom, like a stick of dynamite going off,” said Mel Rhynald, who was working the late shift at the Seafreez Foods plant on Canso’s waterfront.

“We heard the boom and we just took for granted that’s what happened because it was a little hazy and then we knew exactly that the chopper went down.”

Pulchny said officials were notifying the families of the victims, many of whom live at Canadian Forces Base Greenwood in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.

The Cormorant search and rescue helicopter is a recent addition to the air force, but already has a history of problems.

In October 2004, all but essential and test flights of the helicopters were suspended because of the discovery of dangerous cracks on a tail rotor.

At the time, the air force said if a crack had spread, the blade would come off, forcing the helicopter to make an emergency landing.

The Cormorant fleet was grounded earlier in 2004 after one of its British navy equivalents was involved in a crash believed to have been caused by cracks in the tail rotor assembly.

And in February 2004, the Canadian air force suspended training flights after two aircraft developed fuel leaks in the engines. Mechanical problems were also reported in the choppers’ hoists shortly after they replaced the Labrador helicopters.

The fleet of 15 Cormorants fly out of CFB Trenton in Ontario, CFB Gander in Newfoundland and CFB Greenwood in Nova Scotia, and from Comox, B.C.

Canada began taking delivery of the Cormorants in 2000 to replace its aging fleet of Labrador helicopters.

The Italian-built helicopters had already had problems at that time with cracking windscreens and console brackets.

Canada paid $779 million for the 15 Cormorants it bought from E.H. Industries in a deal reached in 1998.

Rest in Peace

Posted by: skeezix

Thanks merc.

Those guys weren't from my unit, they were from a SAR unit based out of Greenwood about 1 1/2hr away from Shearwater. Two of the dead were SAR techs, the third was a flight engineer. A few people I worked with knew them. Looking at the crash photo, it's pretty amazing that the pilots weren't killed as well, but during the crash, the 3 guys probably weren't strapped in as they were probably doing evolutions, being hooked on by what we call a "monkey tail".

The helos I work on are these right here;

Posted by: merczephyr

I knew you had been working on older airframes, but I read that in the Toronto Sun about how Canada had purchaed these rescently. I wasn't sure if maybe your unit had been updated. Are the CH-124's a variant of the H-3 Sea Kings? That's what it reminds me of.

If you have a way, send my best wishes and condolances on to the families through your coworkers.

Posted by: skeezix

Yeah they're a variant of the H-3, we're getting the s-92 to replace the seaking in the next few years.

Thanks again. I'll pass the word on.

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