CH-148 board of inquiry report is completed

A Canadian board of inquiry has released its report into the crash of a CH-148 off Greece in April 2020. Six onboard the helicopter died.

Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada / CC BY-SA

The pilot was performing a turning maneuver called “return to target” when the helicopter’s autopilot took control of the aircraft at the end of the turn. The pilot realized too late that the autopilot was flying the aircraft into the sea and pulled back the cyclic. He had overridden the autopilot for an extended period of time while executing the maneuver.

The board of inquiry found that the autopilot software accumulates commands when it is not turn off. This could reduce pilot’s control of the helicopter in special cases.

During the certification of the CH-148, this scenario whereby the autopilot was overridden for extended time was not tested.

Six recommendations were given in the report with five of those on better training for pilots to be aware of potential issues on overriding the autopilot.

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