Kelowna crash highlights need for cockpit recorders on small planes, says TSB

There are renewed calls for flight data or cockpit voice recorders to be carried on smaller planes following a crash in B.C. last week that killed four people, including former Alberta premier Jim Prentice.

The plane carrying Prentice, optometrist Ken Gellatley, Calgary businessman Sheldon Reid, and pilot and retired RCMP officer Jim Kruk took off from Kelowna B.C. Thursday night, headed for the Springbank Airport near Calgary.

It crashed eight minutes later killing all on board. The twin jet engine Cessna Citation did not have voice or data recorders on board, and was not required to carry the devices.

The TSB has been calling for regulations requiring cockpit voice recorders on planes since 1991, and it says low-cost recorders have since been developed.

Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Kathy Fox said investigating Thursday's crash near Kelowna is a reminder of how important the devices are.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau said he has asked his staff to bring him proposals on regulations for cockpit voice recorders, but did not specify what the rules may entail.

Investigation continues

Safety board spokesman Bill Yearwood said investigators are still at the crash site, but finding a definitive cause for why the plane went down will be difficult without data from an in-flight recorder.

But a former flight safety officer who has clocked thousands of hours on the same kind of plane said the crash site indicates the pilot may have been "incapacitated."

Jock Williams, a retired pilot and flight instructor notes there is no big swath cut into the forest.

"An airplane that runs into the forest at normal cruising speed, say 300 miles an hour, it cuts down a path of trees and then it ends up in a pile of wreckage at the far end... I didn't see any such path in this instance...which implies the plane came down vertically or close to vertically."

As for the lack of the so-called black boxes, Williams said the cost is one factor to be considered.

"People don't realize they're ridiculously expensive. A cheap one might be $400,000," he said.

MPs paid tribute to Prentice in the House of Commons yesterday, with Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose calling him a true gentleman politician who loved public policy and public service.