joker Posted December 7, 2006 Report Share Posted December 7, 2006 Can anyone shed any light on the rumour that the AW139 fleet has been grounded due to fractures in the tailboom / fuselage join? Joker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C of G Posted December 8, 2006 Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 I can tell you that we have had a few occurrences of cracking in the tailboom and exhaust stacks. I believe Chevron grounded their fleet when the exhaust became an issue and was setting off the engine fire warnings and led to an AD. I checked our company flight following and we had a few flying today, but you might check the FAA site for an emergency AD. I'd be interested to see how this progresses myself. You might want to drop the Prowler an email as he should be through the transition by now and he would have some first hand knowledge. If, of course, the helicopter has been up long enough in the last month for him to get his checkride in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhotoFlyer Posted December 8, 2006 Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 No AD's for it listed on faa.gov. According to the site, there are no AD's for the 139, at all. Is it certified under a different name? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joker Posted December 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 Had a very quick (but then had to run) look myself and found the same thing. Could be that the AD was out for the engine, not the airframe. Otherwise, it might be that it was certified before Agusta joined up with Westland (AW). Was it AB139, before? Just guesses! Anyway, goto work now. I'll have another look later. Joker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C of G Posted December 8, 2006 Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 For the exhaust: http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_G...A6?OpenDocument but I didn't see any current emergency ADs. This one was previously issued as an emergency AD so the FAA site actually has it listed twice. I'll ask around today, if I get the chance about the tailboom issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C of G Posted December 10, 2006 Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 I had a quick chat with B. P. and he knew nothing of the helicopters being grounded. The two airframes in our fleet that came up with cracks on the fuselage where the tailboom connects have not been flying since the cracks were discovered, but the 4 or so others have been flying. Maybe the Europeans have grounded theirs? No other info on our end. Let us know if you hear any different. Is your company still looking at them as an option? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joker Posted December 10, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 (edited) Thanks for the info. I owe BP an email... that's reminded me. Interesting news, I'll keep youinformed if I hear anything more. Our company Still has not made a firm decision. Sometime soon. Later! Edited December 10, 2006 by joker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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