Plane modifications not properly recorded before B.C. crash: Safety board

A Transportation Safety Board of Canada vehicle on Vancouver Island in an undated file photo. (CTV News)

The Transportation Safety Board says a plane that crashed last year in Campbell River, B.C., was modified improperly after getting flight permits.

The board's report on the September 2023 crash says the plane took off from Campbell River Airport with two pilots aboard who were involved in the development of a prototype aircraft with Sealand Aviation Ltd.

The report says it was a training flight for one of the pilots to get familiar with the plane before beginning test flights for the company's prototype.

It says the plane went down after a "power-off stall exercise," forcing a hard landing in a forested area about 18 kilometres from the Campbell River Airport, causing minor injuries to both pilots who were taken to hospital by a search and rescue helicopter.

The report says the plane was heavily damaged, its wings and landing gear broken by the impact and its fuel tanks were damaged.

The board's report says the flight had two permits from Transport Canada, an experimental permit and a specific purpose permit, and investigators found "the modifications did not comply with the intended conditions and limitations specified by the permits."

The board says plane owners and pilots needed to properly record maintenance "to serve as a reliable method of determining airworthiness and aircraft status."

"It is critical that aircraft be operated in accordance with the permit, and that any modification to an aircraft be approved before flight," the report concludes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2024