Transport Canada immobilizes 4 types of Bell helicopters following investigation into fatal crash in Alberta

Transport Canada has grounded four types of Bell helicopters after investigating a fatal crash in Alberta last month.

The crash happened about an hour west of Edmonton, with police telling Global News the helicopter was helping to fight a fire near Evansburg on June 28.

After investigating the crash, which involved a Bell 212 helicopter, Transport Canada issued a emergency airworthiness directive Monday.

According to Transport Canada, a strap pin in the main rotor hub sheared during flight, causing the blade and head to detach from the main rotor.

The failed main rotor hub strap pin was reported to have only accumulated 20 hours of service, Transport Canada said in the directive.

Inspection of another Canadian Bell 212 helicopter revealed that a main rotor hub belt pin of the same part number, made by the same manufacturer, with the same serial number prefix, had deformed after only about 29 hours of service.

Failure of a main rotor hub strap pin will cause the main rotor blade to detach and loss of control of the helicopter.

1:44Fatal Canadian Forces helicopter crash linked to software glitch, report says

Transport Canada stated that although defective strap pins have only been reported on Bell 212 helicopters, strap pins of the same part number can be installed on Bell 204B, 205A-1 and 205B helicopters.

Transport Canada also said that although the cause of the outage has not been determined, Bell has issued warning service bulletins as a precautionary measure.

To address the risk of the main rotor hub strap pins coming off in flight, this (airworthiness directive) is being issued as an interim measure to force replacement of the affected strap pins, Transport Canada said.

Global News has contacted the BC Wildfire Service to see if any helicopters from its contract fleet have been affected.

BC Wildfire said they have contacted these companies and are awaiting responses.

1:01Helicopter draws water to fight wildfire near Penticton

Global News also contacted BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS), which said its dedicated fleet of six helicopters (two in Vancouver, Nanaimo, Kamloops, Prince George and Prince Rupert) did not include affected Bell models.

BCEHS does not have any Bell helicopter models affected by this Transport Canada Airworthiness Directive (AD) as part of our dedicated fleet of air ambulance helicopters, BCEHS told Global News.

BCEHS said it owned a Bell aircraft, but it was a different model.

He also noted that there are 35 airlines in the province providing service as needed, and that some of our contract air carriers will be affected by the Transport Canada directive. They will follow the procedural guidelines outlined by Transport Canada.

Global News also contacted Transport Canada for more information, but was told a full response would be available on Wednesday.

With files from Phil Heidenreich

1:50Dramatic helicopter rescue of man and dog from California wildfires