Kathy Fox, Chair of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said, “We don’t like having to say ‘We don’t know’ when asked what caused an accident and why.” To minimize those kinds of responses to the families of victims of aircraft accidents, the media and the rest of the industry, the TSB is recommending the mandatory installation of lightweight flight recorders on all Canadian commercial and private business operators not currently required to carry them. As is the relationship between the NTSB and the FAA here in the U.S., the TSB can only make recommendations to Transport Canada. In the U.S., the FAA requires flight data recorders aboard multi-engine turbine powered aircraft operating under an air carrier certificate with 10 or more seats, or if operated with two required pilots, any multi-engine turbine aircraft with seats for six or more passengers.
TSB Recommends Flight Recorders for Some Commercial and Private Aircraft
Key Takeaways:
- The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) recommends mandatory installation of lightweight flight recorders on all commercial and private business aircraft not currently required to carry them, to provide definitive answers on accident causes.
- This recommendation was prompted by a 2016 Cessna Citation crash where the lack of a flight recorder made determining the cause impossible, though spatial disorientation and pilot inexperience were deemed the most plausible scenario.
- The TSB also highlighted Transport Canada's inadequate oversight of private business aviation, as the accident operator was never inspected, allowing safety deficiencies like unapproved single-pilot operations and pilot inexperience to go undetected.
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