Family members of 2020 Cyclone helicopter crash victims sue manufacturer

The families of the six Canadian Armed Forces members who were killed when a Cyclone helicopter crashed off the coast of Greece in April 2020 are suing the manufacturer.

The suit was filed in U.S. Federal Court on July 10 in Pennsylvania, where the Sikorsky CH-148 helicopters were made and tested.

Lawyers representing the families said a design flaw caused the electronic flight control system to take over control of the chopper, plunging it into the Ionian Sea nose-first.

Master Cpl. Matthew Cousins, Sub-Lt. Abbigail Cowbrough, Capt. Kevin Hagen, Capt. Brenden MacDonald, Capt. Maxime Miron-Morin and Sub-Lt. Matthew Pyke died in the crash.

A statement of claim says all six people on board knew they were going to die in the moments before the crash and experienced “unimaginable terror and fright.”

“Reflecting a corporate indifference to safety that placed profits first, the Sikorsky defendants — in the face of missed deadlines and financial penalties — cut corners to rush the CH-148 into service,” the claim says.

The document says an electronic flight control system had never been used in any military helicopter in the world when the Department of National Defence sought proposals for a new fleet in the 1990s, but Sikorsky offered it as a feature as a way to recoup some of the costs of developing it for a different civilian model.

But the Federal Aviation Administration never certified the control system for the other helicopter model, the claim says. “Because Sikorsky could not find a single buyer and it never went into production.”

The lawsuit alleges that the company analyzed the flight data from the crash and found the system would take control of the helicopter when pilots were making “significant pedal and cyclic inputs” while in autopilot mode, as they were on April 29, 2020.

The Cyclone’s pilots were performing a low-altitude manoeuvre similar to a “return-to-target” move that is commonly used during rescue or combat.

The claim says the pilots believed they would be able to override the autopilot without disconnecting it.

A flight safety investigation report by the Airworthiness Investigative Authority for the Forces dubbed the software issue a “command model attitude bias phenomenon,” which “develops under a very specific and narrow set of circumstances.”

The document notes that under Canadian and U.S. law the Defence Department, Armed Forces and Air Force cannot be named as defendants in a case seeking damages for injuries that happen in the line of duty.

None of the claims have been tested in court.

The Department of National Defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Jul. 19.

A spokesperson for Sikorsky, which is owned by Lockheed Martin, declined to comment on Jul. 19. The company has not yet filed a response in court.