Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Resolute Bay ( Jun 05/00) - The Transportation Safety Board's investigator in charge of the recent helicopter crash outside of Resolute Bay said it will likely be a year before they release their final report.

Peter Hildebrand said they were just in the process of collecting information and that it will be several months before they are able to analyze it all and determine what caused the crash that left two scientists dead and the pilot badly injured.

"We don't get into any conclusions for quite a while," said Hildebrand.

The wreckage, which was spread out over 600 feet, was located on the sea ice about 60 kilometres outside of Resolute Bay and found by a team of local spotters.

The search began shortly after 3 a.m. on May 21 when scientists from the Polar Continental Shelf Project reported to the RCMP that the aircraft was overdue. When located at 1:45 p.m. the same day, both wildlife researchers were dead. The pilot, despite numerous fractured bones and lacerations, was still alive.

Hildebrand said the team of investigators arrived in Resolute Bay on May 23 and spent four days looking around and visiting the scene of the accident.

"We interviewed people there, looked through some of the records and got up to the site," said Hildebrand.

"We took the engine (from the helicopter) and the instruments and sent them to our lab. Eventually they'll analyze that," he said.

He estimated that the final report on the incident will be released in approximately one year.