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Holiday travellers need to know about an obscure Transportation Safety Board report released earlier this year into the causes of a medical evacuation helicopter crash four years ago that left four people dead.

Amazingly, the investigation of the crash concluded that Canada’s aviation safety regulator was asleep at the switch.

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Transport Canada was aware of the problems that led to the crash but has stripped away its safety oversight systems and staff so much that it was unable to respond.

Could this be happening with other airlines that deliver hundreds of thousands of holiday and business travellers every year?

You betcha.

The same approach condemned as a failure in the Ornge helicopter crash is used to oversee every other aviation company in Canada.

“The purpose of regulatory oversight is to encourage companies to be proactive, while intervening when necessary to ensure, at a minimum, regulatory compliance,” said the crash investigators.