DND says no lessons to be learned from N.L. chopper crash

There is no reason for the military to study its role in the rescue operation after a helicopter crash near eastern Newfoundland last March, a defence department official told an inquiry into offshore helicopter safety in St. John's Wednesday.

When the chopper ferrying oil workers to offshore platforms crashed killing 17 people onboard March 12, the military's three Gander-based search-and-rescue helicopters were in Nova Scotia on a training exercise.

In the days following the crash 55 kilometres east of St. John's, a military official said the Canadian Forces helicopters would have arrived at the crash site one hour earlier if they had been in Gander that day.

The military has not written a search-and-rescue operations report, known as a Sar Ops report, about its activities that day

Inquiry counsel Anne Fagan asked a military spokesperson testifying at the inquiry why a report wasn't written about the military's response to the crash.

"A Sar Ops report is written by the military if there were some anomalies, some difficulties, some challanges or some lessons to be learned from an operation," said Col. Paul Drover.

"Essentially there were no difficulties from a search-and-rescue perspective. So, basically there was no need for a search-and-rescue operations report."

A military fixed-wing Aurora airplane was the first search-and-rescue aircraft to arrive at the crash site.

A Cougar search-and-rescue helicopter was the first chopper to arrive. Its crew pulled the sole survivor, Robert Decker, from the ocean about 55 kilometres east of St. John's.

Speaking to reporters in St. John's outside the inquiry Wednesday, a federal MP said Drover's response to questions about the need for a Sar Ops report was unacceptable.

"Whatever happened when they were away is an anomaly ,and I think that my only conclusion is that they would be embarassed by a full report on this," said St. John's East MP Jack Harris. "There was no mention, even today, that their assets were in Nova Scotia. So, I think they are embarassed by it, but I think they have to face up to the reality that this was a mistake."

Earlier in the day, Harris said it's clear to him that the search-and-rescue service provided to Newfoundland and Labrador's offshore oil industry workers must be improved.

"I think it is a given that it is not adequate," the NDP's  Harris of St. John's East said during a break at the inquiry into offshore helicopter safety.

"Offshore workers deserve the highest level of service, but they are not getting that with the service that is there with Cougar now. Maybe the solution down the road is that the Department of National Defence could provide this service and the oil companies could pay for it."

The Canadian military operates search-and-rescue airplanes and helicopters from a base in Gander in central Newfoundland.

Since the deadly Cougar crash there have been calls to improve St. John's-based search-and-rescue services.

Cougar Helicopters, the company that transports oil industry workers offshore, is contracted by oil companies operating in the province's offshore oilfields to provide St. John's-based search-and-rescue work.

Cougar reconfigures its Sikorsky s-92A helicopters to do searches when they get a call. The company doesn't have a helicopter dedicated solely to search-and-rescue work, and cannot perform such operations after dark.

The inquiry, led by retired Supreme Court judge Robert Wells, was established in the months following the deadly crash of a helicopter ferrying oil industry workers to offshore oil production platforms in March, following calls to improve search-and-rescue capabilities.

Autohover gear 'essential'

In earlier testimony on Wednesday, Drover said equipment that allows helicopters to autohover is essential for offshore search purposes.

"It is a very essential feature that makes our SAR [search-and-rescue] helicopters effective no matter what conditions we face," he said.

However, the Sikorsky S-92A helicopters operated by Cougar Helicopters do not have autohover equipment, which allows a pilot to hover without a visual point of reference.

Drover spoke about the capabilities and responsibilities of the military's Gander-based search-and-rescue helicopters.

He is expected to answer questions from lawyers with standing at the inquiry, including Harris, Thursday morning.

Ocean Ranger recalled

A royal commission led by former chief justice Alex Hickman in the 1980s recommended that St. John's-based search-and-rescue capabilities should be established as the province's oil industry grows.

That commission was set up after 84 offshore industry oil workers died when the Ocean Ranger oil rig collapsed during a February 1982 storm.

Hickman's 1985 report after the Ocean Ranger disaster included the following recommendation:

"That there be required a full-time search and rescue dedicated helicopter, provided by either government or industry, fully equipped to search and rescue standards, at the airport nearest to the ongoing offshore drilling operations, and that it be readily available with a trained crew able to perform all aspects of the rescue."

In the days following the Cougar helicopter crash, Hickman suggested Gander search-and-rescue personnel should consider changing their training exercises.

"In hindsight at least, one would have expected that one helicopter would have remained at its station [in Gander], while these exercises were being carried out," Hickman said last March. "But I guess that will be for the authorities, when they inquire into this tragedy, to determine."