Military chopper chops itself, taking serious damage, during night landing on Canadian warship - National Post

Copy URL Facebook Linked In X (Twitter) Loading account options Sign In Manage Account Close account menu Sign Out The damaged Cyclone CH148813 on the deck of HMCS Ville de Québec. "The night flight consisted of multiple phases, with the accident occurring during the final landing sequence," a report says. (Cpl G. Cole/Royal Canadian Air Force) By Chris Lambie November 2, 2026 at 7:38 p.m. A Canadian military helicopter “sustained very serious damage” when it chopped itself up last month while landing aboard a warship in the Norwegian Sea.

The Department of National Defence released a flight safety report about the Oct. 6 accident aboard HMCS Ville de Québec on Friday.

“During touchdown, two main rotor blades struck the tail boom, severing multiple components, including the section 5 tail rotor drive shaft,” said the report.

The four-person crew conducted an emergency engine shutdown and got out of the helicopter safely, it said.

“There were no injuries to the crew members, however the helicopter sustained very serious damage.”

Investigators have not identified any technical issues “to date” with the helicopter whose call sign is Avalanche.

“The investigation remains ongoing and continues to focus on materiel and systems, environmental and human factors,” said the report.

The accident with Cyclone CH148813, occurred during a night flight, said the report.

“The night flight consisted of multiple phases, with the accident occurring during the final landing sequence. At the time of landing, the ship’s flight deck motion was within established helicopter night landing limits.”

It landed in the Helicopter Hauldown and Rapid Securing Device, “commonly known as the ‘Beartrap,’ and was secured to the flight deck,” said the report.

After looking at photos of the damaged helicopter, it appears as if the accident was either caused by pilot error or a computer glitch in the Cyclone, said retired colonel Larry McWha, an aviation expert who commanded 423 Maritime Helicopter Squadron at 12 Wing Shearwater, when it flew Sea Kings.

“It could be either a computer-induced fault or the pilot for some reason pulled back on the stick after landing,” McWha said in an interview on Monday.

“I can’t think of any other reason why this would happen.”

It would have taken “a gross input” to cause the damage, he said.

“It had to have been the pilot pulling the stick back into his gut or, upon landing, maybe the jolt of landing caused the computer to burp” and try to correct for something it thought was going wrong, McWha said.

Pulling back the stick back would tilt the turning rotor, allowing it to “slice into the tail boom,” McWha said.

“All it takes is the tips of the blades hitting it – you’re out of work. It’s over.”

The Cyclone’s rotor blades appear to be “severely damaged,” he said.

The chopper’s crew would have felt and heard the blades hitting their aircraft, he said.

“They probably heard a lot of bang bangs and they would have shut down the engines and hit the rotor brake right away,” McWha said.

“You would know something had gone badly wrong.”

The chopper’s crew would have been in communication with the warship’s landing signals officer, who would be tucked in behind what’s called a howdah, a reinforced, windowed control compartment on one corner of the flight deck that’s named after the covered seats used to ride elephants.

“If you saw pieces flying, your initial reaction would be to duck,” McWha said.

“Hopefully it’ll fly over your head. Or if it hits the screen of the howdah, it’s going to bounce off.”

While the damage to the helicopter’s tail boom was serious, it appears to be repairable, McWha said.

“It’s going to be in the shop for a while,” he said.

If it turns out the accident was caused by pilot error, “then it’s just a re-training issue,” he said.

He wasn’t surprised to hear the investigation report was released quietly on Friday.

“There certainly is a gag order on people talking about anything to do with the Cyclone, particularly if it might be a negative story,” McWha said.

National Defence has not responded to a Sunday query about whether the RCAF has placed any limitations on its Cyclone fleet as a result of the Oct. 6 incident with Avalanche.

The frigate where the accident took place, HMCS Ville de Québec, left its home port of Halifax this past July to deploy on Operation REASSURANCE, joining Standing NATO Maritime Group One as part of Canada’s continued contribution to NATO collective defence efforts in European waters.

It’s “very, very rare” for a helicopter’s rotor to hit its own tail boom, McWha said.

Though he pointed out if has happened before, in July 2019 with a Cyclone flying off the Royal Canadian Navy’s leased supply ship Asterix. In that case, a Cyclone’s main rotor blades hit and damaged its own tail while conducting tests off Hawaii, west of Kauai.

Nobody was hurt in that accident either, but the Cyclone required extensive repairs over 25 days. The military later blamed it on a wind gust.

News of the helicopter damaged last month comes in the wake of last week’s problematic landing of a Cyclone at HMCS Discovery, a naval reserve unit in Vancouver.

Canada’s military temporarily suspended flying operations for its fleet of 26 CH-148 Cyclone ship-borne maritime helicopters last week after one of them lost power during takeoff on Oct. 26.

It landed safely, but the military grounded the Cyclones until Oct. 29.

They resumed flying after technicians “determined that the loss of power is not indicative of a fleet-wide problem,” according to a statement from the military.

The $5.8-billion fleet is normally used to provide air support for the navy. Their missions include surface and subsurface surveillance, search and rescue and anti-submarine warfare.

Canada lost a Cyclone on April 29, 2020, when one of the helicopters crashed into the Ionian Sea, claiming the lives of six Canadian Armed Forces members. Months later, senior military officials said there was a “conflict” or “competition” between the Cyclone and its pilot moments before the aircraft, known as Stalker 22, plunged into the water off the coast of Greece.

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