Engine failure caused fatal crash of helicopter involved in wildfire fight in northern Alberta

February 27, 2025 Canuck

A helicopter crash that resulted in the death of a pilot who was helping to fight Alberta forest fires in 2023 was caused by engine failure, the Transportation Safety Board said in a report released Thursday.

Ryan Gould, 41, was the only person onboard the Bell 205A-1 helicopter when it plummeted into the forest floor on July 19, 2023, about 110 kilometres northeast of Peace River.

Gould, from Whitecourt, Alta., was helping fight wildfires using a helicopter operated by Valhalla Helicopters Inc. that was equipped with a specialized suspended water bucket. Gould had been dispatched to douse the flames of a fire burning northeast of the Peace River Airport.

Investigators found that engine failure occurred moments after liftoff and Gould lost control as the aircraft’s water bucket became entangled in the trees.

Timeline of events

The single-engine chopper had departed the Haig Lake fire base shortly after 6 p.m. with an empty water bucket suspended below the helicopter on a 45-metre long line.

The pilot was on course toward the fire’s front and was speaking with his dispatcher when the aircraft began to rapidly lose altitude.

At 6:04 p.m., the pilot informed the dispatcher that he was returning to the firebase due to an unspecified issue with the aircraft.

The helicopter began a 180-degree turn to the right as it continued to lose altitude, before completely losing engine power, the report said.

The pilot began to autorotate — attempting to navigate the plane without power — into a nearby patch of muskeg. As the helicopter descended, the water bucket became entangled in the trees.

A final transmission was made one minute later. Only the pilot’s call sign was heard.

During the final moments of the emergency descent, the pilot managed to release the bucket’s long line, striking a foot pedal that activates the aircraft’s manual release mechanism.

Seconds later, the helicopter crashed, striking the ground nose-down.

The first signal from the helicopter’s emergency locator transmitter was received at 6:15 p.m. from the crash site.

Gould, who was married with two young children, survived the initial impact and escaped the wreckage but later died in hospital.

Report conclusions

The investigation found that a manufacturing defect in the engine’s air diffuser created a localized failure that progressively led to the engine failure.

An examination of the engine, completed by TSB officials as part of the investigation, determined that a defect in a braze bond within the mechanism had weakened over time.

The result was a loss of clearance of many rotating parts within the engine. Bearings within the diffuser mechanism had failed and and the compressor rotor had made contact with the power shaft.

The investigation also looked at the aircraft’s bucket mechanism as a contributing factor to the crash.

For unknown reasons, the pilot did not hit the electric cargo release for the bucket. Investigators note it would have been difficult to jettison the load using this switch in the short time between engine failure and the crash.

A woman stands alongside a man holding a dog and two boys. — Ryan Gould, his wife Carlyn and their two sons. (Kassy Goodyer/The Canadian Press/Handout)

The investigation found it is a common practice for pilots to operate with the cargo release switch turned off, the TSB said.

“This is done to prevent accidental release. While this may reduce risk in routine operations, it increases the difficulty of releasing the load during an emergency.

“In this occurrence, given that the switch was in the off position, it would have been difficult to release the water bucket in the short time between the engine failure and the impact.”

There have been other fatal air crashes connected to wildfire fighting in Alberta.

Heath Coleman, 48, of Prince George, B.C., died in June 2021 while fighting a fire near Evansburg, Alta., about 100 kilometres west of Edmonton. The Bell 212 he was flying crashed in a rural area near the fire front.

Jean-Luc Deba, 54, of Montreal, died in May 2011 when his Bell 212 helicopter crashed into the water of Lesser Slave Lake, about 250 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

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