by Glenn Taylor
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Nov 14/97) - Transport Canada's push to improve air safety - while government cuts back safety services pilots depend on - is contradictory and woefully neglectful, according to one Inuvik operator.

The Safety of Air Taxi Operations (SATOPS) task force travelled across Canada earlier this year, to hear ideas from industry on improving safety. The final report is due later this month.

Willard Hagen, president of BeauDel Air, had an earful for the task force when it visited Inuvik operators in January. Hagen fears his complaints about cuts to safety services may have fallen on deaf ears, however.

"They keep piling on more and more regulations, while at the same time cutting back services," said Hagen, a 25-year veteran of the industry.

"If a government can't afford to regulate, then it shouldn't be regulating," said Hagen. "If it's going to be regulating, then it better provide those services that enhance safety."

Hagen points to a long list of safety cutbacks and lack of infrastructure that make air travel riskier in the North than in southern centres:

• DEW Line airports ã which pilots have used in emergencies ã are no longer regularly maintained, said Hagen.

• Airport operations close too early, leaving pilots with little or no support during night operations.

• Tsiigehtchic doesn't even have an airstrip. Medevac pilots must land on the river, even during "dicey" times like freeze-up and break-up.

• Frontier areas are outside of radio range, so pilots in emergencies have no one to talk to.

• The department's safety inspectors are overworked, "strung right out (and) stretched to the limit."

• Operators are burdened with mountains of regulatory paperwork, spending time filling out forms that could be used maintaining aircraft.

• Inuvik's weather specialist was cut about two years ago. Pilots must now rely on reports from Edmonton, dictated over the radio by air traffic controllers. They lack specialized weather training, and "can't give a professional opinion about what's on the ground," said Hagen. "They can only read what's in the report."

• Due to new environmental concerns, operators are no longer free to leave fuel caches in remote regions. Operators must now file a mountain of paperwork to obtain permission, which is often refused. "Safety concerns should take precedent over environmental concerns," said Hagen.

"Aviation opened up the North, and it was done by flying by the seat of your pants," said Hagen.

"In some ways, it's still the same situation."

A crash near Tuktoyaktuk that killed seven people in 1993 raised eyebrows among investigators.

Why, the coroner's inquest asked, does the North seem to have more accidents than the rest of Canada? A Transportation Canada report due later this month may help answer this question.

Armed with suggestions from industry, the SATOPS task force completed an interim report in March, which was sent back to operators for their review. The final report, due this month, will offer recommendations and implementations.

Some of the following suggestions operators from across Canada gave to the task force, will be included in the final report:

• Transport Canada inspectors should conduct more random audits and inspections of operators.

• Inspectors should provide more regulatory compliance presence, especially in Northern and remote areas.

• Operators or pilots may be pressured into making trips when conditions aren't suitable (such as bad weather, excess cargo or dangerous goods) because they are concerned about losing the customer to the competition.

• Operators and pilots should not be told of the patient's conditions before or during a medevac flight. This knowledge could pressure people into taking risks in bad weather, etc.

• Customers may inadvertently or overtly pressure pilots and operators to make risky flights. Customers should be educated about the hazards associated with unsafe operating practices.

• Pilots should be confident that their decision to decline a flight due to bad weather will be supported by management.

• Operators are not required to supply flight statistics to Transport Canada. The department wants these statistics to know where accidents are occurring, so accident prevention programs can be allocated.

• A brochure or other material should be developed for passengers travelling on float planes, to tell them what to do in the event the aircraft flips during take-off or landing.

• Salaries based on payment by the kilometre flown or trip completed can pressure pilots to fly as much as possible. This pressure increases the potential for errors in judgment.