News release

Today, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) released its investigation report (A22C0093) into a 2022 occurrence in which the rear fuselage of an aircraft made contact with the runway during landing.

On October 19, 2022, a de Havilland DHC-8-314 operated by Perimeter Aviation LP departed on a night flight from Pikangikum Airport, Ontario (ON), to Sandy Lake Airport, ON, with three crew members and 28 passengers on board. The aircraft was being flown by the first officer while the captain was monitoring and conducting the non-flying pilot duties.

On approach, the first officer significantly varied the power settings to manage the aircraft’s speed in an attempt to maintain the appropriate approach path for landing, resulting in an unstable approach. During the landing, the main landing gear touched down hard, the aircraft’s pitch angle continued to increase, and the rear of the aircraft’s fuselage struck the surface of the runway. Noticing the fuselage strike, the captain took control of the aircraft to complete the landing and then proceeded to taxi normally. There were no confirmed injuries; however, there was significant damage to the lower aft fuselage structure of the aircraft.

The investigation determined that the first officer was relatively inexperienced on the DHC-8 and had received limited guidance on pitch awareness. Further, due to insufficient detail in the standard operating procedures and the absence of awareness training on stabilized approach criteria, the pilots did not recognize that significant variations in the power setting had made the approach unstable, and they continued the approach.

The investigation also determined that the operator had scheduled the first officer, who was relatively new to the aircraft type and the multi-crew environment, to fly with the captain, who also had limited experience in his role. As highlighted in the Air Transportation Safety Issue Investigation Report A15H0001, some air taxi operators have implemented a “green-on-green” policy to limit crew pairings of pilots who, despite having completed all their training, have not yet gained enough operational experience to mitigate the risks associated with pilots with limited experience in their roles flying together. This strategy is especially effective during times of high pilot turnover, when a higher number of inexperienced pilots are available to be scheduled.

Following the occurrence, Perimeter Aviation LP took many steps to address issues raised from the investigation, including updating its pilot scheduling procedures by implementing a restricted crew status list to ensure proper pilot pairings and updating its training procedures for the de Havilland DHC-8-100 an DHC-8-300.

See the investigation page for more information.