The wreckage of a small private plane rests among debris scattered inside the MarsDome at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS).
The staged crash site - complete with scripted witness accounts and a wreckage trail - is at the centre of a new graduate course on air accident investigations.
The course, believed to be the first of its kind in Canada, gives graduate students in U of T's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering a rare opportunity to physically examine and determine the potential causes of a plane crash.
"It's like detective work: why did this crash happen? And can we figure it out based on the evidence that we collect?" says Craig Steeves, a UTIAS professor and the course's co-ordinator.
There were 240 aviation accidents worldwide involving Canadian-registered aircraft in 2017, according to the Transportation Safety Board's (TSB) annual statistics. That's 10 more than the previous year. It's hoped that teaching the methods, processes and technologies involved in an air accident investigation in Canada will help improve safety.
