Canada’s Department of National Defence’s Airworthiness Investigative Authority has issued the final report in relation to the aborted takeoff and runway excursion of a CP-140 on Aug. 27, 2015.
Photo: Cpl Gerald Cormier, 14 Wing Imaging
GD2015-0454-438
Several factors had contributed to this incident, the investigation board had found.
The aircraft was departing 14 Wing Greenwood, Nova Scotia after a heavy thunderstorm and the captain of the aircraft had noticed a flock of birds heading for the runway. He was mentally fatigue and his mind was thinking about a previous bird strike incident which resulted in his late decision to abort the take-off. By the time he made the call to abort, the plane was well above its rotate speed.
The first officer, who was at the controls, retarded the engines to reverse thrust too fast. He was a former Nimrod pilot with the Royal Air Force and he could have been reacting as though he was handling jet engines. However, the turboprops on the CP-140 required during procedures for this situation and thus the No. 3 and 4 engines went into pitchlock.
The maritime patrol aircraft started to veer off the runway and attempts to keep the aircraft on the runway failed. The nose gear collapsed and the No. 3 engine propellers broke off as the aircraft went into the grass patch. A flight engineer hit his head on the console as the aircraft dug into the terrain.