Mechanical issues ruled out in fatal Sudbury plane crash: TSB

The Transportation Safety Board says it has determined there were no mechanical issues with a plane that crashed in Sudbury last month.

On Sept. 21, a float plane crashed into Fairbank Lake in the western part of the city. The pilot, Brian Hickey, 61, was killed in the crash. A passenger was rescued at the scene, and treated for minor injuries.

Ken Webster, the regional senior investigator with the Transportation Safety Board, said the plane was mostly intact when it was brought to the surface, but had significant damage.

"It would be the kind of damage you'd expect to see from a hard collision with water," he said.

"We were able to determine that all the flight controls were hooked up and working properly. We were able to rule out any maintenance or mechanical deficiencies with the flight controls themselves."

He added crews were also able to get a closer look at the engine of the plane, which he said had some power going to it.

'Difficult' landing conditions

Webster said investigators believe the pilot was attempting to land on the lake at the time of crash. He said the conditions to do that were difficult, as it was dark and the lake was calm.

"The water is smooth, what we call 'glassy water'," he explained. "So it's very difficult for a pilot to judge the height of the water.

"There's no real reference of where the water is, so it's not like landing on a runway or a lake with waves on it. So in this case, it would be very difficult for a pilot to judge the height of where the water is or where to land."

Webster said the TSB will not produce a final report on the crash, and is now helping the coroner's office with its investigation.

"We don't fully investigate every occurrence," he said. "Our mandate is to advance transportation safety. If we can't fulfil our mandate with a certain investigation then we'll not do a full investigation but we'll collect the data and the facts and we'll add it to our database for statistics [and] analysis."