The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is renewing its call for mandatory installation of lightweight flight recording systems in aircraft not currently required to carry flight recorders.
TSB officials said the effort stems from a recent fatal crash of a Piper PA-31 Navajo during low altitude flight after a surveying mission, noting a report referenced the TSB said Exact Air, the operator of the Navajo, was unaware that the occurrence pilots had frequently flown at very low altitudes while transiting between survey areas and the airport.
The Navajo was flying between 40 ft and 100 ft above ground level on April 30, 2017, when it struck power transmission wires and crashed to the ground, as the pilots did not detect the power lines, which were 70 feet above the ground until it was too late to avoid them.
TSB officials said the agency has previously recommended Transport Canada require installation of the recording systems, including one recommendation issued earlier this year in a report on the Oct. 13, 2016, crash of a Cessna Citation 500 near Kelowna, British Columbia, in which the pilot and all three passengers were killed.
The TSB said the cause of the airplane crash could not be determined because of the absence of flight, voice and video data recordings.