FILE PHOTO - A wing is pictured amongst the wreckage of a Cessna Citation which crashed on October 13, 2016, is seen in the woods near Lake Country, B.C., in this October 15, 2016, Transportation Safety Board handout image. The aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff, killing the pilot and all three passengers aboard, including the former Alberta Premier Jim Prentice.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-TSB
April 26, 2018 - 10:03 AM
CALGARY - The exact cause of the fatal crash of a business jet that took off from Kelowna carrying four people in 2016 will likely never be known because of the lack of voice and data recorders on the plane.
As a result, the Transportation Safety Board is recommending the mandatory installation of light-weight voice and data recorders in all commercial and private business aircraft and a higher degree of oversight by Transport Canada.
Transport Canada had previously required the recorders but exempted commercial operators shortly before the crash, Transportation Safety Board head Kathy Fox said.
The crash on October 13, 2016 killed former Alberta Premier Jim Prentice when the Cessna Citation jet crashed north east of Lake Country shortly after take-off from Kelowna International Airport. Pilot Jim Kruk, a retired RCMP officer, optometrist Ken Gellatly, the father-in-law of one of Prentice's three daughters and Calgary businessman Sheldon Reid all died with Prentice.
Fox said investigators were extremely frustrated by their inability to pinpoint the exact cause of the crash, although there was some indication of pilot error.
“We aren’t much closer to knowing with certainty what caused this accident,” Fox said, during a live-streamed press conference in Calgary.
Using radar data from Kelowna and Kamloops airports, Fox said investigators determined the business jet experienced rapid changes in speed and height in its final minutes.
She said the pilot may have inadvertently caused the crash by over-reacting to spatial disorientation that pilots on night flights can sometimes experience, a sensation she described as feeling like “tumbling backwards”.
The pilot did not meet the requirements for night flying, having only flown at night twice in the previous six months.
According to a preliminary Transport Canada report issued shortly after the crash, the aircraft owned by Norjet Inc. took off from Kelowna and climbed to an altitude of 8,600 feet before disappearing from radar.
The report says the aircraft, which was built in 1974, was under instrument flight rules at the time of the crash.
Prentice was Alberta's premier from October 2014 until his election loss the following spring when the Progressive Conservatives were kicked out by the NDP after more than 40 years in power.
His family issued a statement thanking the board for its work.
"While this report cannot restore what has been lost, it is our hope the learnings from this tragic event can be used to prevent similar accidents in the future," it said.
"We are proud of Jim's contributions to Alberta, to Canada and to public service, but he was first and foremost a loving husband, father, grandfather and sibling. We will always miss him."
— With files from The Canadian Press
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