NTSB’s Preliminary Findings on Air Canada’s July 2017 San Francisco Incident Threatens to Distort the Canadian Flight & Duty Time Discussions

Late last week, the American NTSB released its finding on the July 2017 incident at the airport in San Francisco, which identify shortcomings in the Canadian Reserve-related regulations as a contributory factor, among others factors unrelated to fatigue. The NTSB findings with respect to this incident may have the unfortunate effect of distorting the discourse on the proposed Canadian Flight & Duty time regulations. The final investigation report has yet to be released, so it is unclear what hours the captain (on reserve) was working; whether or not he attempted to rest before he was called to report for duty; or if his schedule was even in compliance with the proposed Canadian regulations. What’s more, the debate could have the effect of trigging a political kneejerk response affecting the entire commercial aviation community — including helicopter operators — to a very narrow issue relating principally to the scheduled airline community. At the very least, politicians and regulators need to determine exactly what occurred, before leaping to any conclusions. The commercial aviation community isn’t hiding from the facts leading up to the Air Canada accident — with facts being the operative word — but Transport Canada needs to put the circumstances and the other contributory factors in to an operational and regulatory context, before driving these misguided regulations in their current form, forward in the wake of a single incident.

For more details relating to the NTSB findings on the Air Canada incident, please READ MORE HERE.