Allege Planes Not Maintained, Students Flew Passengers For
Free
Oil leaks. Turbo
failures. Unpaid students flying commercial routes with passengers
onboard. These are but a few of the reasons pilots gave a Canadian
news service as reasons why they left the British Columbia-based
regional airline Sonicblue.
Aero-News reported Tuesday on
a Sonicblue Cessna 208 Caravan (file photo of type, right) that
went down over the weekend, killing three of the eight passengers
onboard.
Preliminary accounts indicate the plane's pilot, Edward Huggett,
requested a "dead-stick" landing at the Port Alberni airport,
indicating the aircraft's engine may have stopped -- backed up by
evidence the propeller wasn't rotating at the time of impact.
Huggett was one of the three fatalities.
Canadian investigators are looking closely at the possibility of
fuel starvation playing a role in the accident -- although records
show the plane had been fueled prior to its departure.
They're also poring over Sonicblue's record, which shows two
other fatal accidents for the airline since 1998.
Former Sonicblue pilot Shaun Crowe-Swords told the CanWest News
Service that Sonicblue's aircraft -- owned by International Express
Aircharter Ltd., which also operates planes under the Regency
Express Flight Operations banner -- were in "atrocious" shape at
the time he flew for the carrier.
"One of my last flights
with them, I was flying a Piper Navajo (right)..." said
Crowe-Swords Tuesday. "I was going to Port Alberni, I was flying
the Canadian Coast Guard up there on a charter and the right engine
had such a bad oil leak. The oil was leaking out onto the cowling
and actually smoking."
The airline's hiring and employment methods are also suspect,
according to former Sonicblue co-pilot Justin Peterson.
"They tell you you are part of an airline transition program and
if you want to build time you can act as a co-pilot on their
planes," said Peterson, adding before he could fly for the airline
he had to pay a $5,000 training fee.
"They were trying to call it training but meanwhile you are
flying passengers around the province and they weren't paying
anything," added Peterson. After filing a complaint with Canada's
Federal Labor Program, he got his money back.
Transport Canada pulled International Express Aircharter's air
operator certificate on Monday, pending the outcome of the TSB's
findings. Representatives with the airline were either unable or
unwilling to comment, according to CanWest.
The former pilots indicate they're not surprised Sonicblue lost
an aircraft.
"We've had gear failures, to flap failures, to turbo charger
failures in engines. This is all while in flight. I've had to
return to Vancouver on more than one occasion," said Peterson, who
was friends with Huggett.
He said he had also phoned Transport Canada numerous times to
report infractions.
"You get on an airline, you think it's going to be regulated and
safe... this accident was just a ticking time bomb," added
Crowe-Swords, who now flies for another airline. "When I quit
there, I quit because I [feared] that they would kill
somebody."