The federal agency charged with investigating the fatal crash of a helicopter ferrying workers to an oil rig off Newfoundland last year is defending its decision to exclude the victims' families from the review process of the draft accident report.
"Our job is just to figure out what caused the crash and to make recommendations to make sure an accident like this doesn't happen again," said John Cottreau, a spokesman with the Transportation Safety Board.
The agency is looking into the circumstances surrounding the crash of a Cougar Helicopters Sikorsky S-92A aircraft that plunged into the North Atlantic on the morning of March 12, 2009, killing 17 of the 18 people on board.
Cottreau said draft reviewers, who remain anonymous, must be able to either bring technical accuracies to the report or it must be somebody whose "commercial interests" are impacted by the findings.
"Family members don't fall into our two broad categories for draft reviewer status," he said.
Cottreau said the decision is part of the federally-mandated process to collect opinions from draft reviewers before the report is finalized and made public.
A draft of the board's accident report was given to reviewers the board selected last month.
But one lawyer for the victims of the fatal crash says allowing some parties to review the report while others are excluded makes the process seem unfair.
Steve Marshall, a St. John's lawyer who is part of a consortium of litigators representing the families, says the TSB's process makes it appear as if parties mostly interested in protecting their business might have a chance to alter the accident report.
"How can the victim's families, and especially Robert Decker (the lone-survivor of the tragedy), not be considered 'interested parties'?" he questioned.
"Allowing others, likely Cougar and Sikorsky, to get a look at the report before it goes public is akin to a judge letting only one side look at his findings before he makes a ruling."
But Cottreau, who would not disclose who the official reviewers are, says Marshall's analogy is incorrect, saying the TSB is only concerned with the facts of the crash, and is not looking to judge if one side is at fault.
"That's not our job," he said.
Cottreau said reviewers are given 30 days, plus extensions if they are requested, to assess the draft report and provide notes and suggestions on the findings. The board will then respond to the opinions in writing, before the final report is made public.
He said there is no timetable for when the finished report would be released.
Shortly after the crash, the TSB determined a loss of oil pressure caused by the failure of titanium studs that secured the oil filter bowl assembly to the helicopter's main gearbox broke in flight, forcing the flight crew to attempt to return to land.
The problem with the titanium studs has since been corrected with a new design by Sikorsky, the manufacturer of the aircraft.
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