In the interest of lighting a match to find a gas leak....
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Plane-crash probe to urge new tracking system; Report on Pacific Coastal crash will call for GPS technology that can find downed aircraft within minutes, airline officials say
The Globe And Mail
Tue Sep 22 2009
Page: S3
Section: British Columbia News
Byline: Brennan Clarke
Dateline: VICTORIA
Source: Special to The Globe and Mail
VICTORIA -- An upcoming Transportation Safety Board report into a deadly Pacific Coastal Airlines accident in August, 2008, will call for the increased use of new GPS-based flight-tracking systems capable of locating downed planes and survivors within minutes of a crash, company officials said.
Vince Crooks, Pacific Coastal's director of flight operations, said TSB investigators have expressed concern about the failure of the plane's electronic locator transmitter (ELT), a Transport Canada-mandated device designed to broadcast a radio signal when a plane goes down.
"Several of the investigators have told me they are very much in support of the new tracking systems," Mr. Crooks said. "I believe the report they're going to submit will ask the government to make some changes so that tracking systems are more accepted."
Mr. Crooks said Pacific Coastal voluntarily installed digital tracking systems on all 16 of its planes in the aftermath of the August, 2008, crash and a second accident in mid-November of last year, both of which left critically injured survivors stranded in the wilderness for hours.
"We were already considering the idea of putting them on our planes, and when the first accident happened, we said, 'We've got to do something immediately,' " he said. "Ironically, the proposals we sent out came back the week of the second accident."
On Aug. 5, 2008, a Pacific Coastal Grumman Goose crashed and burned in a heavily wooded area outside Port Hardy, killing five of the seven people on board and destroying the plane's ELT.
Searchers located the wreck within eight hours, but only after one of the survivors, Campbell River resident Bob Pomponio, scrambled to a nearby hilltop and used the weak signal on his cellphone to text message a friend.
"Without him texting from his cellphone, it could have been days before we found them, and one of the survivors [Squamish resident Lorne Clowers] was seriously injured, so the outcome could have been different," Mr. Crooks said.
Tragedy struck Pacific Coastal again in November, when a Grumman Goose carrying eight people slammed into a steep hillside on the Sunshine Coast. The lone survivor, suffering from severe burns, scrambled down a steep creek bed for 2? hours before he was spotted by a Coast Guard rescue vessel.
Pacific Coastal's new tracking system, made by Victoria-based Latitude Technologies, automatically broadcasts critical flight data via satellite directly to the e-mail accounts of senior airline company managers.
"Data bursts" detailing a flight's exact co-ordinates, airspeed, altitude, fuel reserves and other data can be programmed to arrive every 10 seconds to every two hours.
"We have airplanes spread all over the province, and it's pretty easy now to log on and see exactly where they are, right up to the minute," Mr. Crooks said.
Last December, the TSB issued a three-page safety advisory on the Port Hardy crash focusing specifically on ELT failures and identifying GPS-linked satellite tracking systems as an option to improve "flight-following capability. "
Between January, 2007, and December, 2008, the agency documented "30 of 97 occurrences" in which ELTs were damaged, destroyed or failed to activate, "resulting in a failure rate of about 31 per cent," the advisory said.
"There is no requirement for [a GPS-linked] system to survive an accident as it automatically provides valuable information about the flight prior to the crash," the advisory noted.
TSB officials declined to speculate on the contents of the upcoming report - a preliminary draft is due some time this fall - but acknowledged that the safety advisory provides an accurate snapshot of the key issues.
Transport Canada, the ministry responsible for enacting air safety regulations, has no immediate plans to embrace the new technology.
Ministry spokesman Brad McNulty said policies regarding mandatory flight- following equipment are "under review," but was unable to confirm whether GPS- based systems are among the options being considered.
The lack of official recognition hasn't stopped air carriers from jumping on board. Latitude Technologies, formed just eight years ago, boasts an impressive client, list including Conair, Canadian Helicopters, Wal-Mart, Zimex and the U. S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
Retailing for about $5,000, a digital tracking system can cost three times as much as a high-end ELT. But for Pacific Coastal, a family-run airline that was devastated by last year's tragic events, it's small price to pay for peace of mind.
"We had two accidents, and, in both cases, the ELTs didn't work," Mr. Crooks said. "You can spend all you want on an ELT and if it doesn't work, it's wasted money."
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