According to a report, the pilot in a catastrophic Canadian military helicopter crash was ignorant of a flight-control software dispute.

An air force flight safety investigation has concluded that the pilot of an ill-fated Canadian military helicopter attempted to manually override the flight control function and for a variety of reasons did not see the autopilot was still on when the CH-148 Cyclone helicopter crashed into the Ionian Sea off the coast of Greece last year.

The mismatch between manual and automatic flight control systems generated an unanticipated "bias" in the helicopter's fly-by-wire (FWB) computers, causing the aircraft to nose dive at full speed into the water as it returned to HMCS Fredericton following a flypast. The pilot, on the other hand, was not at fault because attempting to utilize manual controls while the automatic system was still active is standard procedure, according to the air force assessment.

The flight safety probe raises a number of other concerns about training and, more crucially, certification of the helicopter, which was outfitted with a high-tech flight control system that few other helicopters in the world have. On April 29, 2020, six members of the military were killed in an accident, the largest single-day loss of life for the Canadian Armed Forces since the Afghan conflict.

Capt. Brenden MacDonald, Capt. Kevin Hagen, Capt. Maxime Miron-Morin, Master-Cpl. Matthew Cousins, Sub-Lt. Matthew Pyke, and Sub-Lt. Abbigail Cowbrough was among that slain. The final flight safety investigation report was released on Monday and does not place blame on anyone.

Rather, the report highlights a number of mitigating variables that point to institutional flaws.

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