Canadian Aviator Magazine

An aircraft modified for Japan's Coast Guard by Toronto's Field Aviation will be back in a shop somewhere after what could only be described as a significant bird strike.

The Dash 8, which has been dressed up with all kinds of high tech gear and airframe mods to drop liferafts etc, was on a routine flight over the East China Sea Jan. 18 when it hit an albatross at about 1,000 feet. Albatrosses can have wing spans of more than three metres and weigh up to eight kilograms.

This one was big enough to put a one-metre hole in the nose, just above the radome.

The crew was able to continue to Okinawa where they landed the damaged aircraft less than an hour later.

There was no estimate of damage.

After musing about the idea to select media just before Christmas, WestJet is now formally floating a proposal to launch a regional airline using turboprop aircraft.

In a news release on Monday, CEO Gregg Saretsky said the new carrier, which would likely use either Bombardier Q400 or French-built ATR 72 aircraft, says it would allow the company to better serve small communities.

However, pundits believe the real prize would be moving into Billy Bishop Airport on Toronto Island to compete with Porter Airlines and Air Canada Express on lucrative downtown-to-downtown routes to major U.S. and central Canadian centres. Jets are banned from Billy Bishop.

The move would also allow WestJet to realign service in some areas to free up its fleet of about 100 Boeing 737s for longer haul operations. For instance, it's current service on the busy Kelowna-Vancouver and Kelowna-Calgary routes costs much more per passenger mile than longer flights because the aircraft never get above 25,000 feet on the 30-40 minute flights.

The idea will go to a vote among WestJet employees, all of whom are shareholders in the airline.

The Transportation Safety Board says deployment of the whole airframe parachute on a Cirrus SR22 that crashed last September near Sundre, AB likely would have resulted in a much happier outcome. The TSB's final report on the crash was released Thursday.

But like many in the aviation community, the TSB can't answer the question as to why the three experienced pilots aboard the aircraft didn't pull the handle when the aircraft went out of control on a flight aimed at familiarizing the new owners with the aircraft they'd purchased that day.

After a touch and go at Sundre Airport, the TSB's analysis suggest the aircraft was set up for slow flight and fell into a spin. Whoever was flying countered the spin but put the aircraft into a spiral dive. The stall/spin started at about 1,600 feet AGL, ample height to hit the silk. Indeed, the Cirrus POH says the only appropriate action to address a spin is to deploy the chute.

Instead the aircraft hit the ground almost vertically, killing Chuck Matson, of Calgary, James DuBarry, of Edmonton and Steve Brosseau, of Spruce Grove.

The full TSB report is at   http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/aviation/2010/a10w0155/a10w0155.asp

Investigators hope to interview the lone survivor of the crash of a Keystone Air Piper Navajo that killed four others, including the pilot, on Tuesday in northwestern Ontario. They'll likely look for insights on why the pilot tried to proceed with a landing in what witnesses described as whiteout conditions in a fierce blizzard.

The aircraft crashed about a kilometre short of the runway at North Spirit Lake, about 400 km. north of Dryden, ON. The lone survivor is Brian Shead, a 36-year-old Winnipeg resident who was on his way to the First Nations community with two colleagues. The other passenger was a resident of the town.

Witnesses said residents rushed to the scene of the crash and tried to put out the post-crash fire with snow.

Transportation Safety Board officials are there and have already mentioned weather as a factor.