1998 Snowbird Tutor crash update
Will Chabun
August 18, 1999
Better training needed for Snowbirds
By SCOTT EMMERSON
Moose Jaw Times-Herald Reporter
Military flight investigators are calling for changes to Snowbird
pilot training following the
completion of their report on last December's fatal crash.
Increased training to help cope with the distractions of two-man flights
and instructors keeping a
closer eye on the skill level of the squadron's pilots are two of the
recommendations highlighted in
the
final report expected to be made public sometime in December, said
crash investigator Maj. Mike Sharon of the Directorate of Flight Safety.
"We believe (the Snowbirds) could have done some things better,"
Sharon said Tuesday from Ottawa.
"Essentially (the crash) was a human error and we have to focus on
training."
Capt. Michael VandenBos, a second-year member of the aerobatic
flight team, was killed Dec. 10, when his Tutor jet slammed into a
farmer's field 42-km southwest of
the city.
VandenBos, pilot of Snowbird No. 2, died after the left wing of Snowbird
No. 6 collided with his
right horizontal stabilizer during a routine practice involving six of
the team's nine jets.
The force exerted on VandenBos' jet essentially twisted the tail off,
leaving him unable to control the Tutor. It rolled upside down, stalled
and plunged vertically to the
ground
- crashing with the cockpit-side down.
VandenBos, a 29-year-old from Whitby, Ont., ejected before impact,
but was pronounced dead in hospital two hours later. Snowbird No. 6 was
able to return to base under
its own power.
In May, the accident was ruled to be the result of pilot error, but a
board of inquiry found no
grounds to proceed with disciplinary action
against the pilot of the surviving jet.
The proposed changes would be "minimal alterations" only affecting
those entering the Snowbird program, Sharon said.
The most serious recommendation deals with implementing specialized
training for Snowbird pilots to manage the stress of having more
than one person in the two-seat Tutor jet.
Multi-person aircraft pilots already receive similar training, but the
Snowbirds do not. Team members
fly solo during performances.
Tuesday was the first time DFS had made reference to a second pilot
(also a Snowbird) being in the cockpit of Snowbird No. 6 during the
accident.
Sharon compared it to being a driver and having a carload of people
talking to you at once.
"It distracts you, essentially," he said. "Our conclusion was that there
were two people in (Snowbird
No. 6), increasing the pilot's workload.
"They were all qualified to fly the plane, qualified to do what they
were doing, but normally they do
it alone."
The air force doesn't have to adopt any of the report's recommendations,
but Sharon was confident
they would
be implemented sometime in the near future.
A spokesman for the Snowbirds' training facility at 15 Wing Moose
Jaw, was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
The completed report however,
sheds no new light on VandenBos'
death.
Investigators were unable to
determine how close to the ground
VandenBos was when he ejected,
only that he was somewhere between
700-1,000 feet in the air. One
thousand feet is close to the
minimum height for a safe ejection
with a parachute.
"We will never get clear-cut
answers," Sharon said. "There is no
flight data recorder and no
eyewitnesses. We're left with
measuring marks on the ground . . .
Given the info we had, we've done
everything we can."
Snowbird Tutors do not carry a
so-called "black box" - a flight data
recorder. Instead they are equipped
with an operational load monitor,
which records speed and stress on
the jet's airframe, but not the cockpit
voice or ejection seat initiatives.