WESTLOCK – The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) says the Oct. 10, 2021, Daher-Socata TBM-910 plane crash at the Westlock Municipal Airport that injured four and sent the then-60-year-old pilot to hospital with serious head trauma, was caused by an "unstable visual approach" that led to it striking the runway “inverted.”
In a 41-page report published March 29, TSB investigator Mike Adam said issues with the execution of the approach, touchdown, and go-around were the causes and contributing factors to the accident while noting that the passengers — who had routinely flown with the pilot and were familiar with the plane — did not receive a safety briefing before departure or landing, while multiple items in the cabin were not secured which led to “additional injuries.”
On the day of the accident, the pilot had flown from Vernon, B.C., and picked up passengers at the Springbank Airport outside of Calgary and had initially planned to land at the Edmonton/Villeneuve Airport, but 30 minutes in diverted to Westlock “because weather conditions at that location met visual meteorological conditions, which would permit a visual flight rules (VFR) approach” — he started the landing just before 11 a.m.
"On short final, the pilot reduced the rate of descent by increasing pitch rather than by adding power. As a result, the airspeed continued to decrease and the aircraft entered a stall, resulting in a hard landing and a subsequent bounce," Adam wrote on the crash.
"During the attempted rejected landing, the aircraft entered a 25-degree nose-high attitude and approached a stall condition. This low-speed condition, combined with the high-power setting, resulted in the aircraft entering a rapid roll to the left and striking the runway in an inverted attitude."
The report notes that the pilot, whose injuries were described as “life changing”, was not wearing the available airbag-equipped shoulder harness and hit his head on the ceiling and pilot door frame. The man remained trapped in the aircraft for two hours until first responders could extricate him and transport him to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton via STARS Air Ambulance — Westlock RCMP alongside fire and EMS responded to the call and found the six-seat, single turbo-prop plane flipped on its back in the southern side of the runway, while debris was strewn across the area.
The report also notes that one of the passengers was injured because she also was not restrained by a shoulder harness and was hit by items that were unsecured within the craft — according to previous reporting, a then-59-year-old woman received minor injuries while a then-28-year-old passenger sustained injuries to her face and head and a then-22-year-old passenger was reported to have abdominal and back pains. A dog was also injured at the scene and succumbed to its wounds before reaching a vet clinic.
The report notes that one of the three passengers was seated in the mid-cabin, rear-facing seat on the right side of the aircraft and was only wearing the lap belt. One passenger was seated in the aft cabin forward-facing seat on the left side of the aircraft, beside the main cabin door and had secured both the lap belt and shoulder harness, while the third passenger was seated in the aft cabin forward-facing seat on the right side of the aircraft and was only wearing the lap belt.
The report also notes that an examination of the wreckage showed that there was “no indication” of airframe, engine failure or system malfunction or that the pilot’s performance was degraded due to physiological factors such as fatigue or medications.
The crash was the second at the Westlock Municipal Airport span of seven weeks in late 2021 as just after 11 a.m., Aug. 30, a 78-year-old Victoria, B.C. man crashed his ultralight aircraft into a south-side hangar at the airport. The man was transported to an Edmonton-area hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. There has been no follow-up report by the TSB.
