RCMP officer charged after incident
A Whitehorse RCMP constable has been charged under the Criminal Code with dangerous flying while off duty.
A Whitehorse RCMP constable has been charged under the Criminal Code with dangerous flying while off duty.
He's been re-assigned to a desk while an internal investigation continues.
In a press release issued late this morning, the RCMP say the charges were laid after a low-flying aircraft struck an unoccupied vehicle at Fish Lake on Jan. 11.
The Whitehorse pilot has been charged with three counts of the dangerous operation of an aircraft.
The press release does not provide many details; not the type of aircraft involved, nor the type of vehicle struck, what time of day it was or whether the incident happened during takeoff or landing.
It does not say whether the pilot was in full flight close enough to the ground to strike a vehicle.
There were no injuries, but there is nothing to describe the extent of damage to the aircraft and vehicle.
The pilot's name has not been released. He is scheduled to appear in court May 8 to face the charges.
Senior investigator Barry Holt of the Transportation Safety Board said today the matter does not fall within the board's mandate so it did not get involved.
He said the board determined the incident did not involve a reportable incident nor accident, so it did not have the mandate investigate.
"So the safety board bowed out of that one,” he said from his Edmonton office.
The accused constable has been assigned to administrative duties pending the outcome of the internal investigation.
The criminal investigation has been reviewed by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team and was found to be impartial and comprehensive, says the press release.
Comments (10)
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flyingfur on Apr 17, 2013 at 1:56 am
Bobby Bittman: The constable is being treated like everyone else. It is standard not to release an individual's name until they make their first appearance in court. A recent example would be the guy they arrested after the drug-related shooting in Granger.
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Arn Anderson on Apr 16, 2013 at 10:32 am
Wow, use your imagination....maybe jaywalking? layman terms? oh, maybe not flying recklessly?
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bobby bitman on Apr 16, 2013 at 7:40 am
Arn, big heads up for ya. Other people "cannot go and sell drugs after (their) shift" either.
Care to make a point? Whew.
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Donald Donaldson on Apr 12, 2013 at 2:50 pm
You know what guys...we are all human. People make mistakes. This cop is not being treated differently than anybody else. A complaint was received, it was investigated and the appropriate charges laid. The police are in no way obligated or required to release names. That information is readily available before the courts should you really have an interest to look or even care. In addition, do your homework as Transport Canada has nothing to investigate given the circumstances. Nothing here falls within their mandate...look it up and I challenge you to prove otherwise. The details of this criminal offense can be obtained via the courts. Barry Holt has investigated many incidents here in the Yukon and from what I know he is a professional and in all respects and we should trust his judgement.
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Arn Anderson on Apr 12, 2013 at 1:55 am
Off-duty cops are still held to the standards of on-duty cops. An off-duty cop cannot go and sell drugs after his shift, please read up on applying to be a cop before bringing up that point.
This will be another classic example that RCMP officers will be treated differently than citizens in our "equal" society. A citizen will get chucked in jail and fined to death while a officer will get "airplane sensitivity training" and a small fine.
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Cops are special on Apr 11, 2013 at 5:07 am
Duh....My bad sorry folks I should have known better, TSB Vs. TC...Dang-it!
however....
They both are full of bureaucrats that seldom make any sense as they seem to live on a different planet.
My humble apologies, for the boo boo.
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Glider on Apr 10, 2013 at 1:18 pm
The story doesn't say that Transport Canada isn't getting involved. It says the Transportation Safety Board isn't getting involved. They are completely different organizations. The TSB is useful in identifying trends and issues so TC can try and avoid them happening again. I don't think there is much to be learned here except that people sometimes make very poor decisions.
In this case I would suggest that the fact one of their own members is getting charged points towards the fact that there isn't special treatment available just because he is a member.
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bobby bitman on Apr 10, 2013 at 9:57 am
Mr. Special, the person was charged with three counts of dangerous operation of an aircraft, which is a criminal offense. Whether he is a police officer or not in my mind is completely irrevlevant given the fact that he was off duty. Being charged and being convicted are two different things. I'll wait for the outcome before deciding that 'common jack-assery' was the cause, and I do not see why Transport Canada would get into this when the person is already being charged criminally.
That said, why are they not releasing the name of the person? Plenty of other Yukon citizens get charged with things and have their names splashed all over the place, guilty or not. Maybe the newspapers should extend the same courtesy to other citizens, not just RCMP officers.
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Wolfe on Apr 10, 2013 at 9:57 am
Are you serious Barry. A pilot hits a vehicle with an aircraft in flight and you say there is no reason to get involved. How insane is that? It was less than 3 years ago that a very similar accident event occurred in Ft. Good Hope. An aircraft did a low and over and hit a person. I believe that pilot was convicted on both criminal and aviation charges.
It is called "culture" Barry. By allowing this RCMP officer to not be investigated by TSB sends the wrong message.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2012/01/09/sk-northern-airplane-death-1201.html
On a side note to the first comment. TSB is not Transport Canada.
They are the Transportation Safety.
All the more reason to be involved. Board.
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Cops are special on Apr 10, 2013 at 8:10 am
Wow...Transport Canada doesn't feel the need to pursue this? kinda odd considering what happened in NWT not that long ago? I guess their mandate is to wait for a death before they can dive into a big investigation, to which they bleat on about..."trying to prevent accidents".
Granted common jack-assery is not aircraft type specific and more operator issues, but really Transport...send a message!
Fly like an idiot and barnstorm ground targets...you get the wrath of transport and its clearly toothless bureaucrats. Hard not to feel like if he were not a Mountie, they would!
Barry Holt sounds much like the pilot, an IDIOT. Why we hold cops to such high esteem these days..is beyond me.
And yes I understand copper was off duty.
I have faith the internal investigation will be fair, as the RCMP always get "their" man ...off.
Speaking of which I wonder how the YVR murder investigation is going?