Six weeks before the Beechcraft King Air 100 crashed in Richmond, killing the pilot and injuring eight others on board, aviation authorities in the U.S. and Canada issued emergency directives for the engine model used by the downed plane.
Though the cause of the crash has not yet been confirmed, the spokesman for the investigation said no evidence so far links the faults identified in the emergency directives to the Richmond crash.
Bill Yearwood of the Transportation Safety Board confirmed that the plane had the same Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-28 as listed in the advisories, but said it is too early in the investigation to confirm whether the engine had the faulty replacement parts.
"The most important thing here is we haven't identified an issue related to this," Yearwood said. "We're too early in the investigation to comment on any [airworthiness directives] and their applicability to this aircraft."
The Northern Thunderbird Air flight crashed on Russ Baker Way about 900 metres short of the airport runway on Oct. 27.
At first glance Yearwood said there doesn't seem to be any link between the FAA warning of "an engine inflight shut down" or "uncontained engine failure" and what happened in last week's tragic crash.
"We don't have that," Yearwood said. "We have pilots turning around because they identified an oil leak."
On Sept. 16, a day after its U.S. counterpart the Federal Aviation Authority had issued a directive, Transport Canada gave those flying with certain models of Pratt & Whitney Canada engines 15 days to inspect and remove gear assemblies that had faulty replacement parts installed since early 2010.
"We are issuing this [airworthiness directive] to prevent failure of the shaft portion of the sun gear, which would result in an engine inflight shut down, possible uncontained engine failure, aircraft damage, and serious injuries," the directive said.
The TSB investigation will look at past maintenance issues the Beechcraft might have had and determine if there is any relationship to the crash, Yearwood said.
The Beechcraft King Air 100, with mark C-FEYT, was built in 1975 and was first registered to Northern Thunderbird Air in 2005 after being imported to Canada by an Ontario airline earlier that year, according to Transport Canada's online records.
The FAA estimated that the particular directive affected 5,000 planes in the U.S. alone, but less than 50 engines needed the faulty parts replaced.
Luc Fortin, the flight's 44-year-old pilot from North Vancouver, died at Vancouver General Hospital from his injuries at around 10 p.m. on the night of the crash.
Three survivors have been released while five remain in hospital. Among those is 26-year-old co-pilot Matt Robic, who is in critical condition with burns to 80 per cent of his body. Four others are in stable condition, according to Vancouver Coastal Health on Thursday.
