TSB renews calls for helicopter safety rules after fatal 2024 Alberta crash

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is renewing calls for updated helicopter safety rules following a fatal crash in northern Alberta in February 2024.

A pilot was conducting aerial survey work over Lake Athabasca near Fort Chipewyan when weather worsened. As the pilot began returning to the airport, falling snow and overcast skies created conditions where the pilot had no visual landmarks to navigate by — a phenomenon called inadvertent flight into instrument meteorological condition (IIMC). The pilot, who lacked experience flying in those conditions, reversed course back over the lake and crashed into the frozen surface. The pilot was pronounced dead at the scene by search and rescue teams.

Investigators found that commercial helicopter operators rely heavily on avoidance — pilots using their own judgment to decide if weather is too dangerous to fly in. But this approach fails when conditions become inadvertently hazardous. "Relying solely on this 'avoid at all cost' approach is simply not working. You can't plan to avoid something that is, by definition, inadvertent," said Daryl Collins, a senior investigator with the TSB.

The TSB made four recommendations to Transport Canada in 2024 on dealing with IIMC, including improving training, equipment and procedures for flying in harsh conditions. These followed similar conditions that caused three deaths in a 2021 helicopter crash on Griffith Island, Nunavut.

Transport Canada said it is examining U.S. Federal Aviation Administration initiatives and proposed updating its rules — originally planned for 2023 — on how clear the weather must be to fly-by-sight in controlled and uncontrolled airspace. The helicopter operator involved, Hanley Heli Service, has since implemented new safety procedures including upgraded flight displays and an advanced online learning system for flight crews.