An official with the Northern Air Transport Association is predicting that new regulations for commercial float plane operators will be announced within the next year.
The Transportation Safety Board has made several recommendations following investigations done on crashes in BC and Ontario.
The TSB wants underwater training for flight crews, pop-out windows and doors in planes, and shoulder harnesses and flotation devices for passengers.
Association executive director Stephen Nourse says a flotation device like a seat cushion would not be helpful in small float planes.
“For a passenger to have it at all times — so he is not searching for a life vest under the seat, or trying to get a seat cushion or all of that. So even though the term is ‘flotation device’, the only practical way to do this would likely be an inflatable life vest.”
Nourse says he would expect to see new Transport Canada regulations on the training and the life jacket aspects in the next year.
However, he says regulations mandating pop-out windows and doors would be more difficulty .
“I would hesitate to have it as a blanket requirement because of the complexity of the structural attachments in older aircraft. Certainly, I think anything newly certified, but I’ve got some concerns about retrofitting older aircraft.”
Nourse says many commercial air companies are already providing underwater egress training for their flight crews, so that regulation would not likely be a burden.
NATA represents 35 commercial air carriers which operate in remote areas of the country.
Many of those companies have float planes in their fleet of aircraft.