Canada: an increase of aircraft accidents, the government pinned

News 20 February, 2018

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AFP

Tuesday, 20 February 2018 15:56

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Tuesday, 20 February 2018 15:56

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The number of aircraft accidents in Canada has increased in 2017, after five years of decline, according to an official report released Tuesday, a union of drivers pointing the finger at budget cuts imposed by the government of Justin Trudeau.

The Office of the Transportation Safety board (TSB) has identified 239 aircraft accidents in 2017, compared to 230 a year earlier, according to preliminary statistics.

The trend is particularly marked in commercial aviation, with 94 accidents recorded, compared to 63 a year earlier (+49%). Only one was mortal, the first in Canada since 2011.

The number of incidents, that is to say problematic situations without no victim to deplore, increased by 11 percent, from 833 in 2016 to 921 last year, according to the TSB.

“These statistics, and in particular the significant increase in the number of incidents, tells me that a major accident is imminent,” responded in a press release Greg McConnell, president of the federal pilots Association of Canada (FPAC).

This organization represents some 450 professional drivers employed by the canadian federal government for inspections of the equipment, supervision of navigation, flight testing, certification of airlines, or the update of standards of pilotage.

For the PFCAS, the ministry of Transport is responsible for the increase in accidents and incidents air to have “systematically dismantled the supervision of aviation safety in the past few years because of budget cuts”.

“More recently, the sector regulator has given the airlines the responsibility of checking the skills of commercial pilots”, has denounced the pilots ‘ Association.

Questioned by AFP, the canadian government has not reacted in the immediate future.

In addition to aviation, the report of the TSB has documented a rise in rail accidents (+21% compared to 2016). It also found a 20% increase on a year of incidents on pipelines, such as leaks.