January 31, 2003
Quebec court orders release of black box retrieved from 1998 crash

MONTREAL (CP) -- The widows of two pilots killed in a 1998 plane crash can use the downed aircraft's cockpit voice recordings in a civil suit, a judge has ruled.

Quebec Superior Court Justice Pierre Viau ordered the Transportation Safety Board of Canada to release the Propair plane's black box by Feb. 14. One lawyer called the ruling a precedent-setting decision.

In his nine-page ruling released Thursday, Viau wrote that the recordings "contain very important pieces of evidence that the parties could not have obtained from other sources as reliable or as precise."

Under Canadian law, cockpit voice recordings are usually kept secret unless they're used in the course of an investigation.

But Viau found that "the public's interest in the proper administration of justice must, in this case, take precedence over the Transportation Safety Board Act."

Widows Lynne Striker-Boulanger and Clemence Michaud say the recordings are crucial to their civil suit in Delaware against B.F. Goodrich, which manufactured the plane's brakes, and plane-maker Fairchild Corp.

John Cottreau, a spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board, refused to comment on Viau's ruling Friday and wouldn't say if the agency plans to file an appeal.

"We're going to take a couple of days to analyse the decision," Cottreau said from Ottawa.

The June 18, 1998, crash killed 11 people at Mirabel airport when the wing broke off during an emergency landing.

A TSB investigation found that the brakes overheated on takeoff and a fire broke out in the left wheel well, damaging the plane's left side including the wing.

The TSB report, released last May, pointed to a lack of brake pressure verification in the plane. The board also found that there was no pressure indicator for the plane's wheel brakes.

General Electric had chartered the plane to take nine employees from its plant in Lachine, Que., to a meeting in Peterborough, Ont. The crash occurred shortly after the plane left Dorval airport.

The crash prompted several other lawsuits, all filed in 2000.

The first suit was by the family of passenger Ronald Thomas Haberfield, who is suing Propair and Fairchild.

The second was by Quebec's workplace safety board, which is suing Fairchild to recoup compensation it paid to families in death benefits, monthly pensions and funeral expenses since the June 1998 crash.

Propair and its insurance company are also suing the maker of the plane and B.F. Goodrich.

George Pollack, who argued the Quebec case on behalf of the widows, said the release of the cockpit recordings was precedent-setting.

He said future litigants may also be able to gain access to previously confidential black-box information, as long as it's "the right case with the right set of facts."

But Pollack added that Canadian courts are not likely to force the TSB to release black-box data on a regular basis.

"You're going to have to show that it is in the public interest and the orderly administration of justice for these things to be released," Pollack said in an interview.

"That's a fairly high bar to meet."

Viau's ruling came with two conditions:
-- The widows were ordered not to reveal the content of the cockpit recordings to anyone except their lawyers and other advisers.
-- The recordings may not be entered into any court record unless permission is granted by Quebec Superior Court.

Quebec court orders release of black box retrieved from 1998 crash

Aviation Investigation Report, In-flight fire Landing gear well, Propair Inc., Mirabel / Montr�al International Airport, Quebec, 18 June 1998

CD- This is very interesting. Thank you so much for posting that article. This decision could have serious implications as to future disclosure by the investigators, possibly even impacting sr111. I take this as a good sign and hope that I am right. Only time will tell which direction this will go. It is my belief as someone that has had their life totally derailed (not to mention my daughter's)by the horror of the sr111 tragedy, that an open investigation is the right way to go. Thanks again.

Full disclosure has also seemed to me to be the most satisfactory way of coming to terms with the deaths of our family members. From the very first knowledge, we have all lived through those events in our imagination - it is better for our mental health to have as accurate a picture possible.

I completely agree with you Ivy. Also it helps to keep investigations honest.