The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has recovered a cockpit voice recorder from a plane that crashed near Fort Smith. Investigators plan to listen to the recordings as early as Wednesday.
The safety board has concluded the field phase of its investigation into the fatal plane crash. A team of investigators is now heading home from Fort Smith, Jon Lee, western regional manager with the safety board, said on Tuesday.
The next stage of the investigation is the examination and analysis phase. Lee said this will include downloading and listening to the recordings from the cockpit voice recorder, expected to take place at a lab in Ottawa on Wednesday.
“These early stages, it’s more or less trying to get the basics down, which is just what happened or the sequence of events,” Lee explained.
“In terms of specifics of what went on, the cockpit voice recorder is going to give us, hopefully, those events as to what the flight experienced in its short time aloft.”
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Lee said investigators also plan to look at data from a satellite tracking system that was tracking the plane.
The British Aerospace Jetstream aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Fort Smith on the morning of January 23. The plane was discovered by the Canadian Rangers near the Slave River about 1.3 kilometres from the town.
Two crew members from Northwestern Air Lease and four passengers, workers headed to the Diavik diamond mine, were killed in the crash. One passenger survived with serious injuries.
Investigators from the UK are assisting with the safety board investigation.
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“Under international convention, manufacturers of the aircraft, in this case the United Kingdom, they offer their assistance, which we accepted, to help facilitate the movement of information from the manufacturer, British Aerospace Systems, to the investigation team here in Canada,” Lee explained.
Fire, freezing rain affect investigation
Lee said one challenge in investigating the crash is that it occurred in a “bit of a remote area.” He said a post-impact fire also destroyed about 80 percent of the aircraft.
“When we’re on site, that’s one of our main pieces of information is the damage to the aircraft,” Lee said. “With a lot of that being burnt away, there’s going to be a lot of information that has been lost.”
Lee said the safety board has turned the crash site over to the insurance company and a salvage company. He said they will be responsible for removing the wreckage and transporting it by road to Edmonton for further investigation by the safety board.
While removal of the wreckage had been scheduled to take place on Saturday, Lee said that has been delayed as a helicopter was unable to fly due to freezing rain.
The safety board has released preliminary information about its investigation including photos of the wreckage and information about the investigator in charge.
Lee said the agency aims to release a full investigation report within 450 days.
If investigators discover anything that poses a significant risk to the transportation system before that report is released, Lee said that information will be shared with people responsible for making changes. He said that could include the operator, Transport Canada, and the manufacturer.
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What does a TSB investigation involve?
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is an independent agency that is responsible for advancing safety in air, marine, pipeline and rail transportation in Canada. That includes investigating transportation accidents and communicating risks.
Lee said investigations into plane crashes include collecting information about the aircraft, the people involved such as the flight crew and air traffic controllers, and the environment in which the aircraft was operating.
“We collect information as much as we can in each of those three major areas and then we analyze it and deduce which items are looked to be contributory and those that are not,” he said.
