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The SafeSkies website focuses on aviation safety issues that affect Canadians, whether flying as passengers or crew, for pleasure or for work, on wide-body jets or single-engine floatplanes.

It was first created to showcase a landmark event: the Aviation Safety Round Table which convened in 2009 on Parliament Hill. The full proceedings of this event are available on this website, including video/audio and transcripts of all of the presentations.

The shocking revelations that emerged at this event galvanized efforts to scrutinize Transport Canada's performance, and to force the department to step up to its regulatory responsibilities.

Latest News

Pilot killed in Ontario plane crash mourned

CBC News – January 12, 2012

Keystone Air is mourning the loss of one of its pilots, who died in Tuesday's plane crash in northwestern Ontario. Fariborz Abasabady, 41, was one of the four killed in the crash in North Spirit Lake. The plane, an eight-seat Piper PA-31 Navajo, was on its landing approach when it slammed into a frozen lake and caught fire.

Winnipegger Brian Shead, 36, was the lone survivor. Abasabady, from Lockport, Man., began working for Manitoba-based Keystone last summer, according to company spokesman George Riopka. Read more...

U.S. Business Aircraft Safety Record Declines

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Safety trends

Kerry Lynch – January 9th, 2012

U.S. fixed-wing business aircraft operators posted a slightly worse safety record in 2011, with the increase in accidents appearing to exceed the slight increase in operations, according to the latest information released by safety expert Robert E. Breiling Associates. At the same time, however, accidents involving U.S. twin-turbine helicopter operations were less than half the number in 2010. Read more...

Battery-Fire Crashes Seen Every Other Year as U.S. Rules Fought

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Alan Levin – December 21st, 2011

Batteries used in mobile phones and laptop computers, which can spontaneously combust, will destroy an average of one U.S.-registered cargo jet every other year, a government analysis has concluded.

Shipments of lithium batteries have been suspected of contributing to two U.S. cargo-jet accidents since 2006. They aren’t treated as hazardous, and the U.S. Congress is debating whether to exempt them from stricter rules. Projected growth in battery production increases the odds of fires, the study by U.S., Canadian and U.K. researchers found.
“It’s like a fireworks display,” Jerry Back, senior fire protection engineer at Hughes Associates Inc. in Baltimore, said about burning batteries in an interview. The firm conducts fire research for government and private clients. Read more...

Pilot Fatigue Rules Issued in U.S.

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Associated Press – December 21, 2011

Rules aimed at preventing airline pilots from flying while dangerously fatigued were issued Wednesday by the Federal Aviation Administration, a move safety advocates have been urging for more than two decades.

The rules update current pilot work schedule regulations, which largely date back to the 1960s, to reflect studies on how much time pilots need for rest and an understanding of how travel through time zones and the human body clock's response to light and darkness can affect performance. Read more...

The Government of Canada Takes Action to Enhance Air Safety

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Digital Journal – December 2nd, 2011

The Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, today announced proposed new regulations to enhance the safety of Canadian aviation. These regulations would require private and commercial airplanes with six or more passenger seats to be equipped with an alert system known as the "terrain awareness and warning system" (TAWS). Read more...

Flight Policy Change Called a Risky Manoeuvre

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CBC News – November 9th, 2011

A new safety approach aimed at getting airlines to police themselves could endanger passengers, particularly those flying with smaller airlines, aviation experts warn.

In 2005, Transport Canada began changing over to a system that critics say essentially left airlines to regulate themselves, instead of primarily relying on federal inspectors to oversee airplane safety as they had before.

The federal department says the new approach, called safety management systems (SMS), makes flying safer, but critics disagree."If we don't have proper oversight, in effect, people are going to do bad things," said Dave Winter, a former federal aviation inspector who quit over frustration with the new system. Read more...

Ottawa Ignoring Us: N.L. Helicopter Crash Victims

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CBC News – November 7th, 2011

Wife of passenger who died says the transport minister has not acknowleged the group's letters.

The sole survivor of the crash of Cougar flight 491 and people who lost loved ones in the tragedy fear their concerns are being ignored by the federal transport minister. Read more...

Pilots Flying Troops Work Long Hours as Charter Carriers Fight Rest Rules

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Alan Levin – October 25th, 2011

Capt. Craig Gatch’s 11-day schedule, traversing 36 time zones, caught up with him as he touched down in Baltimore on May 6, 2009, ferrying 168 U.S. soldiers home from Iraq.

His World Airways Boeing DC-10 bounced then slammed onto the runway, damaging the jet beyond repair, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. One person was severely injured.
Gatch told investigators he hadn’t slept well in four days while flying more than halfway around the world -- fatigue that contributed to the accident, the safety board ruled. Read more...

TSB Report Puts Pilot Health, Fitness Under Microscope

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Canadian Occupational and Safety News – October 18th, 2011

An investigation into a deadly plane crash last year in Miramichi, New Brunswick exposed vulnerabilities in how Canada's transportation regulatory body evaluates a pilot's health and physical fitness, says a report from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB).

In April of 2010, 62-year-old pilot Ron Clowes, an employee of Forest Protection Limited, was taking a Grumman fire-fighting plane out for a practice water drop in the early afternoon (COHSN May 3, 2010). He suffered a heart attack and the plane began to descend, colliding with several trees and then crashing into the ground just minutes after taking off from Miramichi Airport, says the TSB report, released on October 6. No radio contact was made after the pilot took off. Read more...

Aviation Safety is a Team Sport

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Safety trends

Chesley B. Sullenberger III – October 11th, 2011

Prior to January 15, 2009, one of the things of which I was most professionally proud was my involvement in making aviation safer. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I – along with several dozen other pilots, many of whom were also safety committee volunteers – helped develop, implement and teach a leadership and teambuilding course at US Airways called Crew Resource Management (CRM).

SafeSkies Home

Latest News

Pilot killed in Ontario plane crash mourned

U.S. Business Aircraft Safety Record Declines

Battery-Fire Crashes Seen Every Other Year as U.S. Rules Fought

Pilot Fatigue Rules Issued in U.S.

The Government of Canada Takes Action to Enhance Air Safety

Flight Policy Change Called a Risky Manoeuvre

Ottawa Ignoring Us: N.L. Helicopter Crash Victims

Pilots Flying Troops Work Long Hours as Charter Carriers Fight Rest Rules

TSB Report Puts Pilot Health, Fitness Under Microscope

Aviation Safety is a Team Sport

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