http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/08/06/4397798-cp.html
By MICHAEL TUTTON
HALIFAX (CP) - For John Noel, waiting more than a year for answers on how his nephew died in a helicopter crash off Nova Scotia's coast is often more than he can bear.
The 58-year-old electrician wipes away a tear as he talks of his frustration with a military safety inquiry into the crash that killed his 33-year-old nephew, Master Cpl. Kirk Noel of St. Anthony, N.L., on July 13, 2006.
"We've had nothing but misinformation, innuendo, whatever you want to call it," Noel said in an interview. "We don't know anything now more than we did when it started."
Noel was one of three men who died when the Cormorant rescue helicopter plunged nose-first into the Atlantic Ocean just east of Canso during a nighttime rescue exercise.
Search and rescue technicians Sgt. Paul (Duane) Brazil, 39, and Cpl. Trevor Sterling McDavid, 31, also died inside the rear cabin of the helicopter. The three pilots and a search and rescue technician survived.
Officers from the Air Force's Directorate of Flight Safety say they're legally prohibited from revealing what they've found so far.
But for Noel, that silence creates a painful wait, partly because he'd always felt a sense of responsibility for his adventurous nephew, who had just completed his training as a rescuer.
He described their relationship as being like brothers because Kirk grew up in his house in St. Anthony and was cared for by his parents.
"When my father died three years ago, the last thing he said as I was sitting by his side, was, 'Look, John, look after Kirk.' I said, 'Father, don't worry about that. I'll look after him,' " Noel recalled.
"But it was more promise than I could keep."
He and his wife Hazel note that the helicopter's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were recovered, providing detailed information in the crucial minutes before the crash.
The four surviving airmen were also able to give testimony.
However, the only public release on the crash, issued last September, gives only a broad view of the findings.
One line in particular from that report stands out for Noel. It says: "Additionally, several aviation life support equipment and egress issues will be investigated."
That has led Noel to ask whether the rescue technicians managed to release themselves from the safety harnesses that attached them to the aircraft, claiming he received inaccurate information from the military in the early months on this issue.
"We were told the men managed to get their safety harnesses off," he said.
Since then, other members of the military have told him some of the crew who died hadn't managed to remove the "monkey-tail" harnesses, which go around the arms, legs and torso, and have a line at the back that connects them to the helicopter.
Noel said he no longer has contact with any military liaison officers to discuss the harnesses.
"I don't know who to call. We don't know anymore," he said.
Col. Chris Shelley, director of flight safety, said in an interview he can't discuss the harnesses because of the ongoing investigation.
Shelley said he understands the family's frustration and hopes changes to federal legislation will allow more information to be released to grieving families in the future.
He noted that Bill C-6, currently before Parliament, would allow crash investigators to pass more information to next-of-kin, with the legal requirement they not tell others what they learn.
"I find it difficult because the families want to know, more than anything, they want to know what happened to their loved ones, and they want to know how the investigation is going," he said.
"Moreover, it does happen that they get information from other sources, and quite often it's wrongheaded. And so they spend a period of time with a false perception of where the investigation is going."
A draft of the final report was completed in late April and has been in circulation among "persons of direct interest," including aircraft manufacturers, the air crew and officers involved in the accident.
The directorate often states it aims to release the reports approximately one year after an accident.
However, Shelley said in this case "some agencies took longer than anticipated to provide their comments," while a new investigator has been brought into the case and has had other crash investigations to deal with.
Noel said he believes he must keep up the pressure for more information.
"I wonder if changes are being made, or are they operating under the same rules," he said.
