http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/17072006/2/nati...opter-crew.htmlGrieving families to attend N.S. service for dead helicopter crew members
2 hours, 30 minutes ago
By Michael Tutton
HALIFAX (CP) - The grieving families of three military crewmen killed when their rescue helicopter plunged into the North Atlantic gathered in Nova Scotia on Monday to question air force officials and prepare for a sombre memorial service.
About 2,000 people are expected to attend Tuesday's service at Canadian Forces Base Greenwood for Sgt. Paul (Duane) Brazil, 39; Master Cpl. Kirk Noel, 33, and Cpl. Trevor McDavid, 31. All three were killed Thursday when their relatively new Cormorant helicopter pitched forward and crashed in the water near Canso, N.S., as it took part in a routine training exercise.
The three men were well known in the Annapolis Valley town of Greenwood, population 4,000.
Marian Elsworth, the town clerk, said the ceremony - to be held in an aircraft hangar - will bring back painful memories of prior crashes.
"We're in a military community and these things occur," she said. "But you never get used to this."
Elsworth recalled attending the funerals of six rescue crew killed in a fiery crash of a Labrador helicopter on Quebec's Gaspe Peninsula in 1998. In that accident, the twin-rotor aircraft, returning from a medical evacuation, exploded in the air and slammed into the side of a mountain.
Elsworth said the most recent accident is harder to bear because Brazil was a friend.
"When I heard about the accident on the radio, it sent a chill through me. When I realized I knew someone I just said, 'Oh God.' "
For the Brazil family, the accident has been particularly heartrending because the flight engineer's brother, Gary Brazil, was killed when a Canadian Coast Guard chopper crashed off Newfoundland in 2000.
Both were the same age and had two young children.
In his obituary published Sunday, Brazil is quoted as saying he pursued a career in search and rescue in part because he didn't want others to lose their loved ones.
"If I can bring one more person home, then that mother won't have to go through what my mom did," said Brazil, a gregarious Newfoundlander with movie-star good looks.
On Monday, the commander of the Greenwood air base met with families to discuss the crash, said Capt. John Pulchny, the base spokesman.
"There's so many unanswered questions they have that we just don't have the answers to. Why my son? Why my husband?
"Really, how can you answer that right now?"
As the families met with military officials, a Defence Department investigation into the crash entered its fourth day.
Sources close to the probe say the military has examined the contents of the helicopter's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, and interviewed the surviving crew.
However, there was no indication investigators were any closer to knowing the cause of the crash.
The wrecked aircraft was brought to a hangar in Halifax on Friday for further examination.
It is missing its five main rotor blades, one section of the tail rotor blade and about four metres of its nose section, including the cockpit and nose landing gear.
Canada ordered 15 Cormorants in 1998 and they entered service in 2001.
The aircraft are now limited to flying only for rescue missions.