Aviation experts are asking whether the type of plane that crashed on Quebec, killing all seven on board, should have been flying at all, considering its record of crashes and Tuesday’s poor weather.
Daniel Adams, a pilot and flight instructor, told CTV Montreal that multiple factors may have led to the crash that killed former MP Jean Lapierre and six others, but weather conditions combined with the plane’s questionable ability to handle ice suggest it wasn’t safe for the Mitsubishi MU-2B to take off from Montreal.
At least 330 people have died in crashes involving Mitsubishi MU-2B aircraft since it was introduced in the 1960s.
Adams said the main reason people buy the MU-2 turbo-prop is because of its low price.
Keith Mackey, a Florida-based aviation accident investigation and reconstruction consultant, said many factors may be involved, including weather and the degree of training pilots had on the MU-2.
“This aircraft in the past has had a rather high accident rate,” Mackey told CTV News Channel.
“To cure that, in the United States, the FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) came up with a special regulation that requires anyone who flies the MU-2 aircraft to receive special training every year, and recurrent training after that, to make sure they are proficient,” he said.
Mackey added that the extra training has “brought down the accident rate considerably” and he expects the Transportation Safety Board to look into whether the pilots had the extra training.
Douglas Dotan, a former air safety investigator with the Israel Air Force, told CTV News Channel that weather appears to be a factor, and the MU-2 “is problematic if you don’t have the training.”
“The MU-2 has different characteristics from other propeller-driven aircraft,” he said. “This is a high-performance aircraft that flies fast and high and it has certain functional things that pilots need to know that are a little bit different from other aircraft they’ve flown on.”
Mitsubishi issued a statement saying they stand by their plane, adding that the MU-2 has achieved the best safety record in its class since they began offering extra training in 2008.
Mackey said that initial reports suggest the cloud ceiling near the airport where the plane crashed on Îles-de-la-Madeleine were lower than what is required to safely land at that airport -- a minimum 440 feet (135 metres).
The Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday that the cloud ceiling at the time of the crash was 61 metres.
The weather at the time of the crash was light rain, a temperature of 0 C and winds gusting up to 56 km/h, according to the TSB.
However, Sgt. Daniel Thibaudeau of the Surete Du Quebec said that it was “snowing quite heavily” and that “there was a good crosswind.”
Commercial operators Air Canada and Pascan Aviation, which regularly fly to the airport in question, both cancelled flights Tuesday due to weather.
Mackey pointed out that, because the plane was privately-owned, the pilot would have been allowed to decide on his own whether to take off despite the poor conditions.
