Major Law Suit Against Nav Canada and Others

[safetywatch]

On the front page of today's Province:
Lawsuit: pilot given wrong information
Father: Victim Braeden Hale's dad suing over alleged misdirections
View Larger Image
Edward Huggett, 25, died in a Jan. 21 crash 11 kilometres southwest of Port Alberni airport along with Braeden Hale, 3, and a second passenger, Terry Douglas, of St. Albert, Alta. Five passengers survived.
Photograph by : The Province, Handout photo
Article Tools
Printer friendly
E-mail
Font: * * * * Keith Fraser, The Province
Published: Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Air-traffic controllers gave the wrong information to a pilot before he crashed near Port Alberni last January, killing himself and two passengers, says a lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court yesterday.

The pilot changed direction, then changed direction again, all the time losing altitude and speed until he crashed, said lawyer J.J. Camp, representing Jeffrey Hale, whose three-year-old son Braeden Hale was killed and his wife and daughter seriously injured.

"Arguably if [the pilot] had been given the correct vectors and closest airport information he might have been able to make it," said Camp.

Camp said the "core allegation" is that engine failure caused the crash.

But when the Cessna 208 Caravan lost power, controllers told pilot Edward Huggett, 25, that the nearest airport for an emergency landing was Tofino when in fact it was Port Alberni.

Huggett, who had just taken off from Tofino, turned back, resulting in the Sonicblue Airways plane losing critical altitude and speed, said Camp.

Controllers then told the pilot that the nearest airport was Port Alberni and Huggett altered course again and tried to reach Port Alberni.

Once the Caravan descended below 7,000 feet, the pilot lost radio contact with the controllers and crashed into mountainous terrain 11 kilometres southwest of Port Alberni airport.

"We haven't heard the tapes yet but that's what we are advised by sources that allege they know what went on," said Camp.

Huggett died in the Jan. 21 crash 11 km southwest of Port Alberni airport along with Braeden and a second passenger, Terry Douglas of St. Albert, Alta. Five passengers survived.

Nav Canada, which is responsible for air-traffic control out of Vancouver International Airport, said it had not seen the statement of claim.

"If and when we receive it, we'll take it under review," said Nav Canada spokesman Ron Singer.

Camp said the main allegation is that the plane was brought down by the aircraft's compression blade failing, a fault either of engine manufacturer Pratt and Whitney Canada Corp. or engine overhauler Standard Aero Ltd. Neither company could be reached.

The claim also says that Hale's wife, Marnie Helliwell, and his daughter, Mackenzie Hale, suffered serious chemical burns when large quantities of fuel escaped into the cabin.

It alleges the fuel problem was caused when just before the crash the pilot shut off the aircraft's fuel-supply system but on impact the shut valves reopened.

At blame for the fuel problem is Cessna Aircraft Corp., said Camp. He said the problem has come up in previous incidents.

"We think that should have been fixed," he said. "It would have saved these people from the chemical burns they suffered in addition to the other injuries."

Two other passengers, Stacey Curtis and Marissa Richmond of Toronto, also suffered burns and are part of the same lawsuit.

Cessna could not be reached.

Also named as a defendant in the suit is International Express Aircharter Ltd., which does business as Sonicblue Airways, and Transport Canada.
International Express was fined $125,000 in March for failing to maintain its aircraft properly and its air-operator certificate was cancelled. The company could not be reached.

Transport Canada said it had not seen the claim and had no comment.

Jonathan Huggett, the pilot's father, met with his lawyer yesterday and said he is about to file a lawsuit "along much the same lines" as the one just filed by Hale.

The federal Transportation Safety Board, which said in February that the plane's motor displayed rotating damage, is investigating.

- International Express, which does business as Regency Express Flight Operations, is also being sued by pilot Rajbinder Dhiman. He was seriously injured and his three passengers killed when the Cessna 172N he had rented from Regency crashed just after takeoff at Boundary Bay airport on July 1, 2002.

The trial is scheduled for June 26 in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.

[sky's the limit]

Wow. That's very interesting, and of course very sad.

STL

[cyyz]

/.....................

[2R]

Lawyers going after the deepest pockets.
The saddest part is how close he came to walking away from it all . Just that one last tree he hit changed the attitude of the aircaft otherwise it would have been a walkaway for everone .
Fly safe

[asdfasd]

Sad. Maybe the controller made a mistake, but that happens. I think when we use the system its with the understanding we are all human and human errors will occur. Just a part of the risk we accept and try to minimize but will never eliminate.

[cyyz]

Sad. Maybe the controller made a mistake, but that happens. I think when we use the system its with the understanding we are all human and human errors will occur. Just a part of the risk we accept and try to minimize but will never eliminate.

Ahh, good enough for my 1 cent...

"pilot(pic) head to nearest airport A. 5miles away"
-"okay, heading to a, 5 miles away"
"Pilot(pic) head to nearest airport b. 10 miles away"
-"okay," thinking in head (10 seems closer than 5) "turning to airport b...."

Just pull out your AIM clearances and instructions, pic doesn't need to accept or do anything that will kill him....

SO, pilot should have said, "dude, you idiot, you have me going to A, 2 seconds ago and now you want to send me to b??? Get your sh8t together and make up your mind."

But maybe that's just my flawed logic.

But it's a nice attempt at blaming NavCan, and frankly I'm all for them winning against Nav Can, you could also argue, that since they have a monopoly that this wouldn't have happened if the employees weren't so crappy and better trained, but since it is a monopoly they allow substandard training and workers in.. =))) *nahh nahh nahh nahh*.. =)

[confuzed]

I'm going to come off sounding insensitive here and I know it. I truly do feel bad for the family and offer my condolences, however and I'm sure I'm not the only one to think this. Isn't that what the nearest function on the GPS is for? To tell you the closest field relative to your current position? I've used it numerous times myself........granted not in that situation outside of the simulator in Memphis however. To try and pass along the blame in that matter doesn't seem right, I mean if it were a mid air collision due to bad vector then maybe but......

Who knows, maybe I'm just not looking at this from a proper perspective.

[lost]

All Caravans come from the factory with A GPS installed. All he needed to do was hit nearest to know what was around. People survived this accident, while he didn't get to an airport he did alright.

[cyyz]

All All he needed to do was hit nearest to know what was around.


Isn't that what the nearest function on the GPS is for? To tell you the closest field relative to your current position? I've used it numerous times myself........

They are arguing that the PIC was "forced" into listening to Navcanada's Mandatory instructions and he was "forced" to fly to pt. a, and then to pt. b.

Like I said, it was a nice attempt to blame navcanada, but ultimately, pilot is to blame, and funny how no one is suing him, because his pockets are empty....

[ei ei owe]

The NavCan suit most likely won't go through. Once the tapes have all been heard and instructions scrutinized it'll pass. It's just the formal business of cashing in when someone dies. Go after what really matters. The operator, how they did business and look into their books. Look into the service record at Standard (but they do good work) and the Pratt operation and the chemical burn from the fuel out of the tanks (is this legit as well?). But to drag NavCanada into this one is a waste of time. Unfortunately it seems like the PIC had to make the choice, a tough one, to turn twice and bleed off serious altitude and I'm sure he had very good reasons for doing the 180. I'll be interested to see how this one unfolds.

[cyyz]

Go after what really matters. The operator, .

Aren't they already selling their assets, aren't they already bankrupt? Won't get any cash from them either......

[ei ei owe]

I hope what's really on the minds of those launching the suit is not how much money they can collect but who to punish. Could criminal negligence also play a factor and some jail time be in the works?

[cyyz]

I hope what's really on the minds of those launching the suit is not how much money they can collect but who to punish. Could criminal negligence also play a factor and some jail time be in the works?

Didn't the browns, CHARGE OJ first and then sue him??? I think money is the only thing people care about in this case....

[Water off]

Anybody who flies a single engine airplane IFR or VFR should have a plan of action at all times in case of a failure. On a regular route like that, I would think that one would plan a point of no return at various points along the way that would dictate where you would go in case if and emergency. It is not regulated that way as "drift down" is in commuter scheduled ops but it would be good airmanship.
The other question to ask is did the controller know that he had lost his only engine vs. "an engine". It the controller thought it was a multi engine aircraft, vectoring back to Tofino would have been a better option as it has a standard approach. Was the flight on a center stored plan that was normally a Navajo and not changed before the flight?
Had the pilot stated that he lost his only engine and that he was dead stick heading for Port Alberni I don't think the controller would have questioned the decision.
I think it will be hard to throw any mud at Nav Canada on this one. It is an extremely sad accident and we should all remember this as we fly along so that we always have a plan in mind if there is a problem. This would for both single engine and multi ops as there are lots of multi engine machines that won't maintain on one engine either.

[Holy Magenta]

No pilot is required to take an ATC clearance they feel would endanger themselves or the aircraft. Thats basic stuff that makes me think the law suit against navcanada is wack. Of course you'd expect them to do their best to help out, but they are only human too. As said earlier, I would be GPS nearest direct direct and on my way before I even said anything to ATC.

Then again, none of us were in the situation, so I'll shut up now. Sounds like he did really good considering getting turned around. I do feel strongly that TC and regency should be in trouble, but the rest of the lawsuit is ridiculous. The world is controlled by lawyers now.

[square]

Could be that terrain was an issue in vectoring him back to the nearest, controllers don't have VNCs handy as far as I know. I echo KFC's thoughts on this. It's very hard to point a finger in this accident, the flight was all legal and Regency wasn't even doing the maintenance for this plane, they had another company do it. A TC guy I was talking to about this said that the maintenance company was actually a standup operation and everything, but the problem was just one of those hairline fracture kinda things you don't get deep enough to find on the maintenance check. So can't blame either company. The Cessna suit is rather reaching too. Is it supposed to be surprising that some little tubes happened to lose structural integrity in a crash?

I gotta say though, I'm kinda wondering if they may have a legit case against NavC. He was 11 km short, so what's the glide ratio like 6:1? He'd need another 2km of altitude then, so about 6500 ft. Sounds like a lot, but when you add in the fact that he was flying in the wrong direction for a while, then flying all the way back to where he started from before he could glide in (as far as I understand,) all the while descending at probably a thousand a minute... that 11k mighta been doable. Does anyone have a better geographic understanding of this?

Who knows it may turn out to be good, NavC might react by doing some kind of emergency prep training. Maybe they'll all get VNCs and kneeboards with their names on em! Neat.

International Express, which does business as Regency Express Flight Operations, is also being sued by pilot Rajbinder Dhiman. He was seriously injured and his three passengers killed when the Cessna 172N he had rented from Regency crashed just after takeoff at Boundary Bay airport on July 1, 2002.

What this is? They gave him a crashing plane? What terrible company! The dude had 20 degrees flaps down on takeoff with 300 lbs too much junk in the trunk. 'It's ok just use more back pressure..'

[cyyz]

International Express, which does business as Regency Express Flight Operations, is also being sued by pilot Rajbinder Dhiman. He was seriously injured and his three passengers killed when the Cessna 172N he had rented from Regency crashed just after takeoff at Boundary Bay airport on July 1, 2002.

What this is? They gave him a crashing plane? What terrible company! The dude had 20 degrees flaps down on takeoff with 300 lbs too much junk in the trunk. 'It's ok just use more back pressure..'

Indeed it's always the company's fault, never the PIC, the POH, "walk around" that's just there to fill the pages, I mean who buys a 200k toy and doesn't get a manual, welll this puppy comes witha manual, but you need not worry about what it says, and those graphs, shoot, most Pilots aren't even grade school educated, they can't use those, so a Weight and Balancy thing, whatever it is, just for decorations... Just close the doors(optional) tigetn belts(optional) add power and go, and if you have time tell tower you're gonna go immediate from the apron, but only optional again, so that way they can sue ATC for allowing them to take off from there.

[justplanecrazy]

The sad thing is that the family was probably talked into going after ATC by their money hungry lawyer and don't realise what they're really doing. If they are in fact successfull in suing NC or reaching an out of court agreement or if nothing even comes of it I wouldn't be surprised if NC comes up with a new rule to cover their own ass...

"Under no circumstances are you to provide vectors to an aircraft under the min. vectoring altitude."

Funny how ATC saved a number of lives in a similar incident. I don't know if you remember the pilot that iced up over Revelstoke and was in uncontrolled decent. Vancouver Center had just added on a terrain map to their radar and was able to give vectors to get the pilot into the Arrow Lake valley. They had a DH8 fly over head to relay instructions. The pilot managed to hit the valley and break out of cloud, shedding enough ice to continue on to an airport and land without incident. If you know what the terrain is like through there, you would understand that without the vectoring, everyone on board probably would have died.

After this lawsuit and a few more similar ones, don't be surprised if NC sticks to their only responsibility, keeping planes seperated. If you declare an emergency the response may be simply "Navigate at Your Discretion." Personally in these situations where you're bending rules to try and save lives, I always prefix clearances/instructions with suggest.