By Elan Head | August 20, 2014 Estimated reading time 2 minutes, 48 seconds.
More than three years after Canada’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB) made key recommendations relating to floatplane safety, Transport Canada is moving forward with regulatory amendments that would require passengers and crew to wear flotation devices when boarding a seaplane, and while operating on or over water.
Transport Canada outlines the planned changes in a Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA) published on Aug. 15, 2014. In addition to mandating the wearing of flotation devices, the amendments would require underwater egress training for all fixed-wing commercial seaplane pilots operating under Subparts 703 and 704 of the Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs).
The agency is also proposing to introduce a definition of “seaplane”—as “an aeroplane that is capable of normal operations on water”—and to remove the outdated definition of personal flotation device currently incorporated in section 101.01 of the CARs. According to the NPA, “The overarching objective of these proposed amendments is to continue improving the safety of Canadians who travel by seaplane.”
The changes were motivated by the crash of a Seair Seaplanes Ltd. DHC-2 Beaver that killed six people at Lyall Harbour, B.C., in November 2009. In its final report on the accident, issued in March 2011, the TSB made two major safety recommendations to Transport Canada, including the recommendation that “all occupants of commercial seaplanes wear a device that provides personal flotation following emergency egress.”
The TSB also recommended that all new and existing commercial seaplanes be fitted with regular and emergency exits that allow rapid egress following a survivable collision with water. In the NPA, Transport Canada says that, while it considered such an implementation, a seaplane industry focus group determined that it was not presently viable due to the prohibitively high cost of retrofitting existing commercial seaplanes with rapid-egress exits.
“As push-out windows may not be a suitable option for all aircraft, [Transport Canada] continues to examine what further actions can be taken to continue improving the safety of Canadians who travel by seaplane,” the NPA states.
Comments on the NPA may be addressed to carrac@tc.gc.ca through Sept. 12, 2014. Comments will be considered as TC proceeds with drafting the proposed amendments, which will then be published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, with an additional opportunity for comment.
