Page 4 - Forum-2020-JulyToSeptember

(Adapted with permission from the au- Research-Based Insights
thors’ technical paper Research-Based
Insights Through Accident Investigations:
The Importance of Lightweight Flight Through Accident Investigations:
Recording Systems for Accident
Investigations presented during ISASI
2019, Sept. 3–5, 2019, in The Hague, the
Netherlands. The theme for ISASI 2019
was “Future Safety: Has the Past Become The Importance of Lightweight
Irrelevant?” The full presentation can
be found on the ISASI website at www.
isasi.org in the Library tab under Technical
Presentations.—Editor) Flight Recording Systems

By Beverley Harvey, Senior Investigator, International Operations and Major Investigations, Air Transportation
Safety Board of Canada; Bruce Mullen, Regional Senior Investigator, Operations, Air Investigations-Atlantic,
Transportation Safety Board of Canada; and Christina M. Rudin-Brown, Manager, Human Factors and Macro
Analysis Division, Transportation Safety Board of Canada

he question for ISASI 2019’s par- crash-protected flight two high-profile accidents investigated by the Trans-
ticipants is whether the past has recorders. portation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada. Both involved
become irrelevant. Certainly, some Advanced technology privately operated aircraft, and these accidents oc-
Tissues have become irrelevant; in this field has result- curred in 2016 within months of each other. There are
investigators have come a long way with ed in recorders that are similarities between the two; however, the findings are
access to more modern investigation very sophisticated, light quite different because one aircraft had a lightweight
techniques because of knowledge gleaned in weight, and much less flight recording system on board and the other aircraft
from the past. With modern technology, costly than earlier models. did not.
investigators can rely solidly on rapid In the distant past, record- The first accident that this paper will examine is
communications and assistance from ers on large commercial from the TSB’s aviation investigation report A16A0032:
first responders, coroners, and manu- aircraft were not regarded Collision with terrain/Mitsubishi MU-2B-60, N246W/
facturers whose expertise is instantly as being essential; but once Îles-de-la-Madeleine Airport in Québec, Canada, March
available for all phases of the investiga- the benefits were demon- 29, 2016.
tion. For example, technology regarding strated in accident investi-
photography has improved so much that, gations, recorders became TSB report summary
instead of having to wait for good weather mandatory. On March 29, 2016, a privately operated Mitsubishi
and a helicopter to film the wreckage site, So it is today—the emer- MU-2B-60 aircraft (registration N246W, serial number
excellent drone photography is instant- gence of lightweight flight 1552S.A.) departed Montréal/Saint-Hubert Airport in
ly available. This enables investigators recording systems is start- Québec on an instrument flight rules flight to Îles-de-la-
to concentrate on their job of combing ing to show the benefits in Madeleine Airport in Québec. The pilot, a passenger-pi-
through the wreckage site, photograph- accident investigations and
ing components, interviewing witnesses, normal day-to-day data
and then taking the accident from the collection. Canada still has
outdoors to their computers. sectors of aviation in which
However, there is one challenge in recorders are not manda-
Canada that still needs to be solved. tory for some commercial
This challenge stems from the absence operators and privately
of regulations for the implementation of operated aircraft. Our
lightweight flight recording systems for challenge is to demonstrate
privately operated aircraft (the private how effective lightweight
operation of any aircraft type listed in flight recording systems are
Section 604.3 of the Canadian Aviation in accident investigations
Regulations [CARS] and engaged in and continue to recom-
noncommercial flight operations must mend that the government
abide by specific regulations set out in address this issue in a
CARS Subpart 604) and other commercial timely fashion. Beverly Harvey from the Transportation Safety Board of
aircraft not currently required to carry This paper will discuss Canada at the accident scene.

4 • July-September 2020 ISASI Forum