Allege Planes Not Maintained, Students Flew Passengers For Free

Oil leaks. Turbo failures. Unpaid students flying commercial routes with passengers onboard. These are but a few of the reasons pilots gave a Canadian news service as reasons why they left the British Columbia-based regional airline Sonicblue.

Aero-News reported Tuesday on a Sonicblue Cessna 208 Caravan (file photo of type, right) that went down over the weekend, killing three of the eight passengers onboard.

Preliminary accounts indicate the plane's pilot, Edward Huggett, requested a "dead-stick" landing at the Port Alberni airport, indicating the aircraft's engine may have stopped -- backed up by evidence the propeller wasn't rotating at the time of impact. Huggett was one of the three fatalities.

Canadian investigators are looking closely at the possibility of fuel starvation playing a role in the accident -- although records show the plane had been fueled prior to its departure.

They're also poring over Sonicblue's record, which shows two other fatal accidents for the airline since 1998.

Former Sonicblue pilot Shaun Crowe-Swords told the CanWest News Service that Sonicblue's aircraft -- owned by International Express Aircharter Ltd., which also operates planes under the Regency Express Flight Operations banner -- were in "atrocious" shape at the time he flew for the carrier.

"One of my last flights with them, I was flying a Piper Navajo (right)..." said Crowe-Swords Tuesday. "I was going to Port Alberni, I was flying the Canadian Coast Guard up there on a charter and the right engine had such a bad oil leak. The oil was leaking out onto the cowling and actually smoking."

The airline's hiring and employment methods are also suspect, according to former Sonicblue co-pilot Justin Peterson.

"They tell you you are part of an airline transition program and if you want to build time you can act as a co-pilot on their planes," said Peterson, adding before he could fly for the airline he had to pay a $5,000 training fee.

"They were trying to call it training but meanwhile you are flying passengers around the province and they weren't paying anything," added Peterson. After filing a complaint with Canada's Federal Labor Program, he got his money back.

Transport Canada pulled International Express Aircharter's air operator certificate on Monday, pending the outcome of the TSB's findings. Representatives with the airline were either unable or unwilling to comment, according to CanWest.

The former pilots indicate they're not surprised Sonicblue lost an aircraft.

"We've had gear failures, to flap failures, to turbo charger failures in engines. This is all while in flight. I've had to return to Vancouver on more than one occasion," said Peterson, who was friends with Huggett.

He said he had also phoned Transport Canada numerous times to report infractions.

"You get on an airline, you think it's going to be regulated and safe... this accident was just a ticking time bomb," added Crowe-Swords, who now flies for another airline. "When I quit there, I quit because I [feared] that they would kill somebody."

FMI: www.tsb.gov.ca, www.sonicblueair.com