Canadian Military Wants S-92 Software Changes After Fatal Crash - AVweb

The Canadian military is reportedly asking Sikorsky Aircraft to revise the flight director software in its CH-148 Cyclone, a military version of the S-92, after a crash off Greece last year. It’s the same platform being developed as the next generation Marine One for presidential and VIP service. The Canadian Press is reporting that the pilot of the Cyclone, who was taking part in a military exercise last April 29, performed an aggressive but common maneuver known as a “return to target” when the flight director overrode his control inputs and dove the big helicopter into the Ionian Sea. A total of six military crew members died. A military source told Canadian Press that the military wants the code for the flight director substantially rewritten to take out “command accumulation bias,” the code that is cited in the report. “We need to look at that software and see if we can eliminate this from the software altogether, being careful to understand when you make any changes like that you may introduce a butterfly effect and cause problems elsewhere,” the source said.