The Transportation and Safety Board of Canada is conducting an investigation into a helicopter crash in Québec that killed four people.

The four victims, including a child, died in a crash in the town of Saint Ferdinand in August. All 4 victims were members of the same family. The pilot of the helicopter was a 65-year-old man, who also owned the Robinson R44 helicopter. The crash occurred about 50 miles from Saint Ferdinand airport, from where the helicopter had just taken off. The other three victims on the helicopter included the pilot’s wife, his son and 8-year-old granddaughter.

The helicopter was completely destroyed by the impact of the crash. There was no indication of a post crash fire. Investigators have already begun an analysis of the wreckage, a review of the helicopter’s safety records and an evaluation of the pilot’s flying history. According to some acquaintances of the pilot, he had more than 1000 hours of flight experience.

The helicopter that crashed was a Robinson R44, an aircraft that California helicopter accident lawyers are extremely familiar with. From all accounts, this seems to have been a sudden accident that caught the pilot unawares. There were no distress calls from the helicopter before the crash.

Any California helicopter crash lawyer familiar with the design defects of the Robinson R44 would speculate that the crash was due to a process of debonding. The skin of the rotor blade is attached to the front spar by a gluing process, which can fail. The National Transportation Safety Board has found that in certain circumstances, because of corrosion, or simply over time, the glue may weaken, causing the blade to fail, and lead to a helicopter crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board has presented its report into a California firefighting helicopter accident in 2008 that killed nine firefighters. The report has strong criticism for the oversight failure of the Federal Aviation Administration, which shouldn’t come as a shock to any California helicopter crash attorney.

In August 2008, the Sikorsky helicopter with several firefighters on board was engaged in firefighting operations when it crashed into a mountainside. It appeared at the time that the helicopter had not been able to gain altitude before it crashed. The pilot had more than 20,000 hours of flight time, especially in offshore and logging operations. The helicopter was owned by Carson Helicopters, and the day of the crash was the pilot’s first day working for Carson.

The company had contracted helicopters to the U.S. Forest Service for firefighting operations. According to the NTSB report, the company understated the helicopter’s empty weight and overstated its lifting capabilities in order to obtain the contract. As a result, the pilots were not aware that the helicopter was 3000 pounds heavier than its maximum allowable weight for rough terrain. The pilots were operating under a false sense of security that the aircraft had enough power and lift, when it did not.

The NTSB report has special criticism for the failure of the Federal Aviation Administration to oversee aircraft that are operated on behalf of government agencies. More than 1,600 commercial helicopters are operated on behalf of government agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service, and these do not benefit from the same kind of oversight that the FAA uses for private-use aircraft. The FAA has no direct authority to inspect the operations of government aircraft, even those that are leased by private contractors to federal agencies.