Helikopter ELT - Canada - Rotot&Wing

S-76 Crash Prompts Calls for ELT Improvements

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is seeking improved emergency locator transmitter (ELT) standards as a result of its investigation into a fatal controlled-flight-into-terrain accident involving an air medical Sikorsky S-76 in night VMC on May 31, 2013. Both pilots and the two paramedics aboard were killed. The twin-turbine rotorcraft departed at about midnight and crashed just one mile from its departure point, but it took search-and-rescue teams more than five hours to find the wreckage. According to the recently released investigation report, “the helicopter’s satellite tracking system reported a takeoff message and then went inactive. The search-and-rescue satellite system did not detect a signal from the emergency locator transmitter.” The TSB issued 14 recommendations in all, several of them calling for Transport Canada, ICAO and RTCA to establish improved ELT crash survivability standards. Additionally, the TSB recommended that Transport Canada require all Canadian- and non-Canadian-registered aircraft operating in the country be equipped with a 406-MHz ELT. The Board also wants ELT “hook and loop” fasteners to be prohibited. The Board took aim at amending operating regulations to better define the visual references required to reduce the risks associated with night VFR.