Britain’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency grounded four S-92s over the weekend used for search and rescue in order to replace bolts in the main gearbox filter housing, according to cnn.com.
The MCGA currently operates four S-92s under contract from Canadian Helicopters (CHC).
-srbp-
The provincial government may find itself in a fight with AbitibiBowater pensioners in the province very shortly, as a direct result of the expropriation bill forced through the legislature last December.
If the paper company is unable to come to an arrangement with the creditors, it will likely have to file for bankruptcy protection.
One of the biggest creditors looking for cash will be AbitibiBowater retirees, including people who are retiring at the end of the month or who already have retired from the paper mills at Stephenville and Grand Falls-Windsor. There’ll also be a bunch looking for severance but that’s another matter.
That’s where the expropriation comes in.
The provincial government expropriated the company’s most lucrative assets – the hydro bits – in anticipation the company might go bankrupt. Rather than let the trustees sell off the assets, the provincial government probably figured they could get the whole thing for nothing. If the company sued, the thing will take years in court anyway. In the meantime, the company is faced with the huge cost of the environmental clean-up at the mill.
The government gets the sweet bits and the company gets the bile. The people back the government. Everybody is happy.
Well, not exactly.
There are those Abitibi pensioners.
They’ll be one of the Abitibi creditors looking to the trustee to sort out the company financial state and secure them some cash.
In the event the company files for bankruptcy protection, you can guarantee that the trustees will come looking for every nickel they can find. If the expropriation lawsuit was doubtful before, under a bankruptcy scenario, you can guarantee that all those creditors will want their cash.
Creditors that include the pensioners.
People from Newfoundland and Labrador.
Suing their own provincial government for their own money.
Wow.
So which side will the provincial government be on:
The pensioners…
or its own?
-srbp-
The Transportation Safety Board team investigating the crash of a Sikorsky S-92 found a broken titanium bolt in the aircraft’s main gearbox filter bowl assembly. (link includes picture of filter assembly)
The broken bolt would reportedly cause oil to leak from the gearbox.
In January 2009, Sikorsky alerted all operators of S-92s to the need to replace the titanium bolts with steel ones within 12 months or 1250 flying hours, whichever came first.
The crashed S-92 had not undergone that bolt replacement.
The United States Federal Aviation Administration is expected to issue an emergency airworthiness directive for the type, effectively grounding all S-92s worldwide until the the titanium bolts are replaced with steel ones.
Just a second, there update: A spokesperson for the FAA said the agency hasn’t decided when, how and what type of directive it may issue. The bolt may have broken during the crash or during the recovery operation.
-srbp-
The text of a news release issued today by the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board:
The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) says it does not believe there is a safety issue with the suits currently in use for transporting offshore workers. There have been issues around comfort and convenience, but no safety issues have been identified. If a safety issue arises, it will be assessed and appropriate action taken.
The Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) introduced the current Standard for these suits in 1999, replacing a previous Standard issued in 1989. The suits currently used in the Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Area are certified by Transport Canada as being in compliance with this Standard.
The CGSB has in place a committee to provide advice and input into this Standard. The C-NLOPB is represented on this committee, along with the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NSOPB), the National Energy Board (NEB), the Government of Canada, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Marine Institute, the oil and gas industry, the fishing industry and suit supplier representatives. In all, there are 28 members on the CGSB committee. Several of the committee members have identified concerns with the technical content of the current Standard, but importantly, no safety issues have been identified with the suits.
Committee members are currently in the process of developing a project agreement with the CGSB for the revision of the Standard during the 2009-10 fiscal year. The C-NLOPB has had discussions with both governments and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) on this issue. Consequently, we all agreed to contribute financially to the cost of developing a revised Standard, which would seek to address any concerns in the current Standard, and are in the process of conveying this message to the CGSB.
In response to the current helicopter tragedy, we have asked the Transportation Safety Board, the RCMP and the Medical Examiner’s office to advise us if their investigations reveal any evidence that the suits worn by the helicopter passengers, in any way, contributed to the injuries or fatalities that occurred as a result of the accident.
In addition, the C-NLOPB has asked CAPP to provide us with a list of any issues their offshore workers have raised concerning the current suits, and details on actions taken to address any such issues.
The C-NLOPB, the Provincial Government, the Federal Government, other regulatory agencies and the industry are committed to working with the Canadian General Standards Board to remedy any concerns with the Standard. For more information about the Standard, contact the CGSB or Transport Canada.
Looks like everything in yesterday’s provincial government scrum was already well underway.
Of course, the provincial government would have known that before calling reporters together. After all, it’s not like the provincial government isn’t directly involved in these issues. Makes you wonder why the Premier volunteered not one but twice that they weren’t.
-srbp-
The provincial government has no regulatory role in the offshore?
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The provincial government has no other role in the crash of a helicopter travelling to the White Rose oil field?
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Conflict of interest is just the start of it.
Oil company update: When the de facto head of the provincial government’s oil company calls for a review of offshore survival suits, the guy who speaks for the association of oil companies operating in the province agrees that it’s a good idea.
Already underway update: Turns out that the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers was already working with the federal standards agency on the review of survival suit regulations. In an interview with CBC Radio on Friday, CAPP spokesperson Paul Barnes said they’d expressed their support for the review when they got a letter from the standards agency on February 24.
Now that news make you wonder why the Premier would call for a review that was already underway.
And why would he leave the impression there were concerns when the review appears to have been started as part of the regular review and update process?
Did anyone think to ask those questions yesterday? Like when the Premier said that someone made him aware of the issue.
Who made you aware? seemed like a fairly obvious, logical sensible question.
-srbp-
Lead Transportation Safety Board investigator Mike Cunningham told news media today that a preliminary review of evidence collected of the Cougar S-92 crash suggests the aircraft experienced a major problem at about 800 feet above sea level.
"There was something that happened very suddenly and abruptly after the aircraft got down to 800 feet and levelled out," Cunningham said. "After that the helicopter went into the water and it was a fairly significant rate of descent, which resulted in a pretty bad impact with the water. That's why we have the extent of damage to the wreckage that we have."
This is generally consistent with information available to date, including a log of indicated air speed and altitude for the flight.
Cunningham is quoted in other news media (link above to CBC) as saying it appears the aircraft struck the water nose first. This is based on an assessment of the damage to the recovered portions of the aircraft. The cockpit portion is reportedly heavily damaged. There is also a suggestion from some of the comments that while the main portion of the fuselage is in one piece, it is damaged considerably as well. This may have hindered the passengers from escaping.
These comments today – which are based on a preliminary examination of evidence – suggest strongly that the aircraft inverted immediately on or very quickly after impact. This would explain a number of details including the apparent absence of signals from personal electronic locator beacons worn by each of the 18 souls on the aircraft. The locators do not work underwater.
In an initial news conference (either the first or second) the search and rescue spokesperson reported that aircraft on the scene had reported beacons from the aircraft itself (it is equipped with three) and from the two bodies of two people observed in the water by the first aircraft on the scene.
Both were recovered by the first search and rescue helicopter on the scene. The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board mandates that offshore operators (oil companies) keep one helicopter within 30 minutes of St. John’s to provide search and rescue coverage. Contrary to some media reports, this meets the recommendation of the Ocean Ranger Royal commission.
The cost of the helicopter operations - including the search and rescue service provided to meet the Ocean Ranger commission recommendations - is borne entirely by the oil companies operating offshore, including the provincial government’s oil company which has an interest in White Rose and which will have an interest in Hebron, once it is built. Canadian Press reported last week that the operators have tried to shift the search and rescue cost entirely to the federal government.
Misinformation on both safety and search and rescue issues has fuelled a frenzy of media speculation and political opportunism (two links) since the crash last week.
This misinformation persists despite information from many sources, including some apparently knowledgeable comments on CBC’s website that the current issue immersion suit was developed and improved in part from testing offshore Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.
-srbp-
%5B12%5D.jpg "675A0062(2)")
The Telegram front page on Thursday included additional photographs of the Atlantic Osprey.
They moved the crate late at night (after midnight) to avoid heavy traffic.
St. John’s city council deferred further discussion of the search and rescue issue until a later time.
Following the council meeting, Coun. Keith Coombs said a delay would help in a couple of ways.
"The period of mourning will be two weeks older, but also will give an opportunity I'm sure for him and others to see what reports come out and what the actual facts of the matter are, because obviously there's a lot of emotion tied to this," said Coombs.
Good idea, especially when the guy pushing it hardest admitted he really doesn’t know anything about the subject.
Good idea too, from a council with a history of talking about things that are way outside their mandate and then making an ass of them in the process. The mayor built his career on things he clearly knows nothing about. One of his pet projects has cost taxpayers $65 million and counting.
Yes, Doc O’Keefe rose to prominence on the whole provincial government’s gas price fixing scheme.
The most recent example of this tendency to get involved with stuff council shouldn’t be involved with? The whole crowd all got taken for a ride by a guy peddling a hockey team to go in the Wells-Coombs Memorial Public Money Pit, a.k.a Mile One.
What is it about city councillors talking about anything but the stuff they get paid to look after (let alone know about)?
What is it about politics and hockey that makes for such an overwhelmingly bad mix for voters?
-srbp-
1. Roger Pike offers some insightful comments on why the central Newfoundland community is currently in the grip of a major political crisis.
2. The mayor and council have a plan to deal with the closure of the paper mill. Well, not really a plan. More like a list of things.
3. One town councillor thinks there’s too much negativity.
She [Janice Eisenhaur] added that she wondered if the "vultures'" behaviour was for political gain, self-gain, or if just because they were chronic complainers.
The councillor says she isn't referring to the people who are looking for answers, but to those who she says make unfounded statements and publicly announce them, with no facts and figures in front of them.
…
Councillor Eisenhaur says council and other people are working on initiatives that will hopefully lead to more jobs and increased economic growth.
"Is it going to replace the jobs that are going to be lost in the mill? No. Will it employ some of those people? Perhaps."
Would those vultures - people who, for political gain, self-gain or some other reason, make unfounded statements and announce them publicly - include people who claim there is a plan to offset the loss of a 1,00 jobs in the region and the town’s major private sector employer but who can’t provide any concrete details?
She did not go into detail about the initiatives she mentioned, though Mayor Rex Barnes talked about them in this past week's Exploits Regional Chamber of Commerce dinner (see related story on page one of today's Advertiser), such as cranberry farming, IT and health care.
"This are things are going to come to fruition. It's not going to happen overnight and it is going to take public and private investment, so we're going to have to wait for this to happen."
There are plans but Janice can’t say what they are other than that they involve a few of things that have already been going on and which really can’t replace the mill anyway.
Sounds pretty much like something that is unfounded and said by somebody without facts and figures in front of them. Don’t be surprised if someone wonders if Janice’s comments are for political gain, personal gain or a need to complain about the people she gets paid to listen to and work with.
God save us, from mainland reporters who spend a few hours in a local hotel in St. John’s and presume to understand this place they love to call “The Rock.”
God save us, to, from local politicians like Janice Eisenhaur.
4. The Advertiser takes a poke at the vulture idea.
-srbp-
The crash of Cougar 91, carrying passengers to two of the country’s offshore oil platforms, has prompted calls for enhanced search and rescue service.
Unfortunately those calls are hampered by misunderstanding and misinformation.
Retired Canadian Forces colonel Michel Drapeau described a forward deployment scenario today for audiences of the noon-time CBC Radio current affairs program radio Noon. Drapeau talked about sending aircraft to St. John’s from existing SAR assets but Drapeau appeared to believe that existing SAR service is provided entirely from Nova Scotia.
Others have been calling for the creation of a new search and rescue squadron in St. John’s. This is justified on the basis that St. John’s is closest to the oil fields, among other things.
The eastern coast region covers the area from southern Nova Scotia to the northernmost tip of Labrador and extends eastward into the Atlantic to at least the 200 mile limit. That huge expanse is covered currently by three squadrons, as follows:
DND is currently finalising the purchase of up to 15 fixed wing search and rescue aircraft to replace the existing fleet of sic CC-115 Buffalo. The favoured aircraft appears to be the C-27 Spartan.
As well, DND is in the process of replacing the existing fleet of Hercules with the newer “J” model.
Given the large geographic area as well as the terrain and climatic conditions on the east coast, the search and rescue capability needs to come from a mix of aircraft. That’s the solution that has worked well.
Current attention is focused on St. John’s but the real weakness is the current basing which puts all the assets in the south and central with limited capability in the north.
Enhanced capability for east coast search and rescue could come from:
The in-flight refuelling tankers would be provided by the new CC-130J aircraft that would be dedicated to the SAR role. Currently, 413 aircraft are also used as transports.
Having dedicated in-flight refuelers would extend the range and time on station of Cormorants. Some aircraft will still have to fly longer distances but by refuelling in-flight, they will minimise the time currently taken by landing to refuel and launching again.
At the same time, these new fixed wing aircraft would not be multi-tasked as 413 Squadron is currently. 103’s new Hercules would also be available to support 413 Squadron.
Overall, this approach would enhance capability to the north where it is currently very limited. As well, the overall east coast where the majority of daily activity takes place would have capability for longer periods, farther out to sea than is currently available.
-srbp-
Canadian Press should know that 103 Search and Rescue Squadron in Gander has three – not two – CH-149 Cormorant helicopters.
It’s on the squadron website.
-srbp-
A day after we posted a link to the blog on local call-in shows, the thing vanished.
-srbp-
From flightaware.com, the track log for CHI91.
Times shown are Eastern Daylight Savings time. To convert to local (Newfoundland and Labrador) time add one hour thirty minutes.
This data, which appears to come from Gander air traffic control centre, must be taken as preliminary and may be inaccurate. The Transportation Safety Board investigation will use data from several sources, including the onboard flight data recorders, to develop a complete and accurate picture of the flight.
-srbp-
Since taking over the Cougar S-92 crash, the Transportation Safety Board has been providing more details on the incident through regular media briefings.
Over the weekend, TSB officials described some of the debris recovered initially. It included:
The fuselage is sitting on the bottom in approximately 178 metres of water. The tail boom has separated from the fuselage but remains near the main part of the aircraft. The fuselage is resting on one side.
The aircraft appears to have suffered a hard impact, significantly harder than first assumed. As a TSB official described it:
"It's been broken up somewhat," he said.
"It's cracked up quite a bit. The cockpit area in particular has been quite damaged."
However, he noted, the helicopter's cabin structure, from where the bodies are being recovered, is "somewhat together."
Unedited video of the TSB news conferences are available at cbc.ca/nl.
-srbp-
Now that would be nutty even in a nutty federal administration.
Not quite as nutty as having a cabinet minister who has nothing better to do that write letters to the editor, but still, pretty nutty.
People in Labrador, of course, won’t help but notice that all the big projects supposedly being “advanced’ by the provincial government in Labrador - according to cabinet minister John Hickey - depend on federal funding.
Meanwhile in related nutty news, still no word on how Hickey’s defamation suit is going. Hickey sued the former leader of the opposition for remarks said by someone else, namely Hickey’s own party leader, Premier Danny Williams.
Maybe Hickey has federal aspirations, what with his attacks on incumbent member of parliament, Todd Russell. Based on the standards set by the current science minister, Hickey would have a bright future in any Harper government.
He fits right in.
-srbp-
The remains of all sixteen of the missing from Cougar 91 have been recovered and returned to St. John’s.
Only one person on board the flight survived. He remains in hospital but is reportedly making a steady recovery.
-srbp-
[St. John.s city councillor Tom] Hann admitted he didn’t know enough about search and rescue to say whether or not a faster response would have made a difference to the outcome of last week’s crash.
“I can’t answer that question,” he said. “That’s an issue for the experts. But the only issue that I see is that, you know, I think it’s needed. Everybody says it is needed, but nothing has been done.”
The guy says he doesn’t know enough to anything of consequence at all and yet he makes a proposal to do something to deal with a situation about which he admits his own fundamental ignorance.
On top of that, he claims the idea of having a search and rescue unit in St. John’s is an issue best left to “experts” but at the same time, he wants to push this idea because “everybody” says it is needed.
So who are the experts he’s talking about?
Here’s a thought: maybe Tom can get together with Scott Simms and discuss relocating the search and rescue unit in Scott’s riding to St. John’s.
-srbp-
Tom, don’t expect to get a job with Sikorsky sales update: Just listening to Tom Hann on a night-time talk show doing an excellent job of demonstrating what he doesn’t know. Tom is familiar with these subjects since - as Tom put it - “I’ve flown the Cormorant.” Flown one or flown in one?
Anyway.
Newsflash, Tom - Both the Cormorant (EH-101) and the S-92 are built to fly search and rescue as well as transport and other missions. Next time you get a chance to talk to anyone federally you might ask about the new navy helicopter, the Cyclone, which is…wait for it…the S-92 in another guise. When it comes in service, it will be providing SAR back-up for the Cormorants.
Makes you wonder where Tom stood on the cancellation of the EH-101s in 1993? It’s a bit like listening to Scott Simms asking where the Cormorant back-up was while the entire squadron from Gander conducted a squadron full deployment exercise last week.
The back up was provided by Cougar. Here’s some video of a Cougar SAR training mission. You’ll find a few other vids of this from different angles.
Once this is all over, Rick Burt and the people at Cougar need to take Tom and his friends up for a spin and introduce them to the superlative staff flying SAR missions for the company.
Funny yes, but not pretty.
Is that you, Bas? is a new blog dedicated to local talk radio callers.
-srbp-
Not surprisingly, an e-mail showed up on Thursday ranting about what the writer – a former journalist – called “asshole questions.”
It wasn’t surprising because more than a few people have been appalled since Thursday last week at an entire line of innuendo drawn by one reporter at a news conference on the Cougar helicopter crash and then turned into a self-referential pile of garbage that evening on a VOCM call-in show.
Self-referential refers to the arrogant tendency of both the reporter and the call-in show host to talk about how hard this whole tragedy at sea has been for them. They didn’t lose anyone on the ill-fated Cougar helicopter flight nor did they know anyone personally, apparently. Their grief came from having to cover the story. The pair led off the Sunday evening edition with the same self-pity bull.
Then they turned to justifying their comments about search and rescue and what they seem to believe was the lack of search and rescue response “on Newfoundland ground.” That’s the phrase the reporter in question likes to use. He used it, too, in that news conference not to establish the search and rescue response but to focus on the military search and rescue.
All that blather – as well as the call right afterwards from one of their former colleagues at the twice defunct newspaper The Independent - was a clue that the pair have been under some pressure likely from their colleagues in the local journalist community for a string of not only what the e-mail correspondent aptly described but the commentary that flowed from the questions.
The details of this incident were known on the day of the crash. One of the details known from the outset is that a search and rescue helicopter was available at the time of the crash and responded to the scene. According to the timeline produced in the Telegram from the rescue co-ordination centre in Halifax, the helicopter arrived on scene 72 minutes after the ditching and recovered the one survivor in the water.
One must wonder on what basis anyone would morph the simple facts as established clearly and unequivocally into some sort of line of inquiry about the CH-149s.
The only obvious reason to do so would be if there was any indication that this had an impact on events, but that doesn’t hold up to any scrutiny. With the information presented at the third news conference on the day of the crash – the one at which the string of questions on the Cormorants started – it was pretty clear that none but the two bodies (one fatality and one survivor) identified were spotted by the very first aircraft on scene. That PAL King Air arrived some 25 minutes after impact, more than 40 minutes before the first search and rescue helicopter - from COUGAR search and rescue (SAR) - arrived on the scene.
With that established – as it was from the outset - there is no legitimate reason to persist in the blatant misrepresentations that have taken place since Thursday.
Search and rescue aircraft were available immediately at the time of the crash. The others – Cormorants belonging not to coast guard but to the Department of National Defence – were on a training exercise. They were pulled off the exercise and despatched to the crash site. They arrived on the scene 18 minutes after the COUGAR SAR flight. [Corrected: original stated difference in time as 38 mins. Cougar on scene 1110 hrs. Cormorant on scene 1128 hrs local]
This entire thread cannot be blithely dismissed as part of the normal hard work done by responsible journalists. Responsible journalists did their jobs on Thursday and they have done it since then on this story. They asked hard questions but they asked relevant questions based on the information readily available. They didn’t get into the Cormorant angle, one suspects, because the unspeakable truth of this incident was evident to them all from the outset.
Responsible journalists didn’t use the questions and answers to create an entirely false impression, as it evidently has, in a group of people who have been misled in their grief. One of those people, the mayor of a town hit hard by the tragedy, turned up on national radio repeating the false information he had received and trusted.
Even as hideous as all that is, the self-referential pair can’t be held responsible for another despicable crowd who have taken the false information – no search and rescue helicopters in Newfoundland at the time of the crash – and put it to some more demented purpose. Far too many people have taken this false information and turned it into part of their political agenda. One of those callers turned up just now on the same call-in show spewing his particular brand of venom. Not once did the host try and sort the fellow out.
People who know how news conferences work know how information can change in an unfolding event such as this one. They can note, for example, how some details change. In the second newser, some locator beacons were detected initially. In the third one, it sounds like none at all were detected. The correct detail will emerge.
That’s not what we are looking at in the case of the thread about SAR response. The details were already clear from the outset. Some people have misrepresented them, inexplicably and disgustingly.
This sort of misrepresentation amounts to an abuse.
It tortures the families of the victims of the crash by suggesting a hope which is false.
This attack – and that’s what it amounts to – tortures the men and women of the search and rescue services. 103 Search and Rescue Squadron flies twice the national average in SAR missions. Hercules from 413 Squadron join them far out to sea. They all train hard and fly hard and risk their lives in weather when the rest of us are huddled by a fire safe at home. They do it to save the souls whose lives are at risk in the harsh North Atlantic. When lives are lost, as in this case, they will inevitably search their souls to ensure that all that could be done was done.
This attack abuses the men and women of Cougar. The company has an exemplary safety record. The company has such a record because every single employee is committed to safe service. Over 48,000 accident free flying hours don’t happen without such a level of personal commitment. The company’s crews also fly search and rescue services every bit as good and every bit as dangerous as the work done by 103 and its sister squadrons.
These misrepresentations abuse the members of the public who are shocked by the tragedy and who share in the grief of those who have lost loved ones. They are misled into believing things which are not true.
In a time of tragedy, it is hard to imagine more monstrous abuses. The tortures will continue until someone decides to put an end to them. Maybe a wise editorial hand needs to rest on someone’s shoulder.
In the meantime, all that the rest of us can do is hope that somewhere in the midst of their self-absorption, the perpetrators of the abuse can realize the harm they are doing.
-srbp-
