Naval Helicopter Software Solution ‘Scope’ and Cost Expected Spring 2022 | The Canadian News

The extent and cost of the changes needed to remedy a software problem that was the cause of a naval helicopter crash off Greece that resulted in six deaths will not be known until next spring.

A spokesman for the Department of Defense said in a recent email that work is in progress, but that neither the price to taxpayers nor the timelines for the remedy will be finalized until Sikorsky, the makers of the Cyclone helicopter, complete a first phase of the study.

Two reviews by the Canadian Armed Forces have found that the autopilot took control of the Cyclone CH-148 helicopter, submerging it in the Ionian Sea as the pilot turned to return to HMCS Fredericton on April 29, 2020.

Master Cpl. Matthew Cousins, Second Lieutenant. Abbigail Cowbrough, Captain Kevin Hagen, Captain Brenden MacDonald, Captain Maxime Miron-Morin and Sub-Lt. Matthew Pyke died in the accident, the largest loss of life in a single day for the Canadian military since its mission in Afghanistan.

Some automated systems experts told The Canadian Press in July that a solution to the software problem was urgent and expressed concern that a similar incident could lead to more deaths.

Since then, there have been more problems with helicopters. The military has recently found cracks in the tail of most of the fleet’s helicopters, resulting in a series of ongoing repairs to return 19 damaged aircraft to their regular flight duties.

The Flight Safety Investigation Report completed seven months ago called for a solution to the flight control system to prevent further overrides of pilot control.

Defense Department spokesman Andrew McKelvey wrote in an email to The Canadian Press that “the work will be completed in two phases.”

“The first phase is determining the scope of the changes necessary to address the recommendations made in the report. This first phase is expected to be completed in spring 2022, ”he wrote.

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He said the timetable for the second phase will depend on the scope of the changes determined in the first phase.

In July, three experts on the interaction between automation and pilots told The Canadian Press that the department needed to move quickly toward a solution that went beyond the Royal Canadian Air Force changing training regimes and limiting some maneuvers.

Mary (Missy) Cummings, a former US Navy pilot and director of the Human and Autonomy Laboratory at Duke University, has said that the pilot’s inability to regain control of automated software is “a very serious problem. serious “, which must” be addressed immediately “. “

According to the findings of the flight safety report, the autopilot was left on while the pilot executed a sharp turn, and as a result, the software generated commands, preventing the pilot from resuming manual control at the end of his shift. The first of two military reports, the Board of Investigation report, referred to this backlog of automated software calculations as “attitude command bias.”

Sikorsky spokesman John Dorrian said in an email Friday that the company is working with the air force to “evaluate improvements to the CH-148’s flight control system.”

“This work includes design reviews, addition of enhancements to flight control software, extensive simulation testing in a lab environment, and ongoing rigorous evaluations by Cyclone pilots. This … process may lead to additional comments, suggestions and changes before the way forward is approved, ”he wrote.

Greg Jamieson, a professor of industrial engineering at the University of Toronto who studies human-automation interactions, said in an email Friday that a one-year period to identify the scope of changes for a major engineering change to a system of Relatively new flight control “is reasonable.”

“However, if that scope of changes is found to be broad, it could further challenge the aircraft certification process when Sikorsky was aware of bias accumulation behavior and was apparently deemed not to present a safety risk,” he wrote.

Michael Byers, Canadian research professor and professor in global politics at the University of British Columbia, said in an email Friday that he remains concerned that “the Canadian Armed Forces are putting the lives of aircrews at risk by sending them in helicopters that They have known security matters. “

“Instructing the aircrew not to do certain things, which is what they mean by ‘restrictions’ and ‘limitations’, is totally unacceptable because it increases the chances of a combination of human and equipment failure,” he wrote.

“Cyclones must be grounded until Sikorsky finds a definitive solution to the software problem.”

This Canadian Press report was first published on December 11, 2021.