B.C. fatal crash: Ottawa needs to ‘catch up’ to operators on helicopter safety, industry says

The association representing Canadian helicopter operators claims the industry currently goes above and beyond Transport Canada rules, and says the government needs to 'catch up.'

A tragic helicopter crash in northern B.C. on Monday has spurred calls from the industry to stiffen federal regulations.

The association that represents Canadian helicopter operators claims industry members currently go above and beyond Transport Canada rules, and says the government needs to “catch up.”

The comments come as efforts come to recover the bodies of three people killed when a heli-ski chopper went down in the mountains north of Terrace, injuring four others.

Heli-ski operations are already highly regulated under Transport Canada and various provincial authorities.

But the Helicopter Association of Canada wants to see more from Ottawa.

“Our members have found it beneficial to go above and beyond the standards as regulated by Transport Canada. We’ve been doing this for a number of years, I would say decades,” association president and CEO Trevor Mitchell said.

Mitchell pointed to protocols known as Safety Management Systems (SMS), a constantly evolving set of best practices considered the global standard in proactive safety practices.

He said the industry has been pressing federal regulators for those protocols to be applied to its sector of aviation.