National Defence committee  They have to have pilots, of course--two pilots. They have to have at least three rescue specialists, as they call them in the private sector. They don't call them SAR techs, but they are the same people, and most of them were trained by the military. They leave the military in d

National Defence committee  And you'd have to have living quarters out there. They'd have to be housed, to put it that way, at the hangar. If you're going to have a short response time, you can't drive two or three miles or kilometres from home, or that sort of thing.

National Defence committee  No, I didn't make that recommendation, because as yet Canada's offshore is quite small and I didn't feel that would be sensible. What I did say is that if the industry expands here on the east coast, the time will come when the C-NLOPB and the oil operators ought to begin thinkin

National Defence committee  Just to fill you in, all through my working life I thought helicopters required two hours of maintenance for each hour in the air, but these heavy lift helicopters require three hours of maintenance for every hour in the air.

National Defence committee  Oh, collectively, yes.

National Defence committee  Yes, I've heard.

National Defence committee  There hasn't been one on pooling resources, but when, during this commission, the issue of a closer liaison between DND and the oil operators' helicopter operator and first response provider came up, I recommended a formal protocol if DND was prepared to enter into one, and I thi

National Defence committee  The question you're asking goes to the heart of what I'm not supposed to be talking about, which is the response of DND, or at least where it puts its—

National Defence committee  The best I can say in cases of offshore helicopters going down or ditching is that if some people would be expected to live, speed is the important thing.

National Defence committee  I mean speed of rescue.

National Defence committee  If I may take a moment, there's interesting work being done by the National Research Council here in St. John's. They are testing. Since my report, Ms. Fagan and I and Mr. Roil have actually been in to see what they're doing. They are finding that wave and wind action reduces the

National Defence committee  Yes, they were properly suited and they had time. You see, after the emergency and the oil pressure dropped, they had about 10 minutes of flying time. They didn't know how long it would be, but they certainly had time to zip up the face seal and prepare for whatever happened. Unf

National Defence committee  This was a crash.

National Defence committee  It may make such a determination, but the TSB gave three initial reports very shortly after the crash. They described what happened. There was a loss of control and a crash because the rear rotor became inoperable. The main rotor was operating, but they couldn't control the helic

National Defence committee  It's interesting that when Mr. Decker, the survivor, came to and the helicopter was sinking, the only light was the lights on the shoulders of the survival suits of the people in the helicopter, and there was no movement.