Heli-Ops Posted October 11, 2003 Report Share Posted October 11, 2003 HONG KONG (AP)--Hong Kong's government has temporarily grounded four new French-made search-and-rescue helicopters after one developed a major mechanical failure - the latest in a series of problems with the aircraft. The Government Flying Service started operating five of the US$10 million EC155 B1 helicopters about six months ago. They've since had several problems - including a fatal crash still under investigation. The latest problem surfaced Monday, when an oil cooling fan disintegrated in one of the choppers' main gearbox while the craft was flying. It landed safely and no one was injured. A door suddenly flew off one of the choppers while it was flying over Hong Kong's harbor on Aug. 3. Another crashed into a hill near Hong Kong's airport on Aug. 27, killing the two crew members on board. It was the first crash involving an EC155 series helicopter made by Eurocopter, based near Marseilles in southern France. Hong Kong has taken the helicopters out of service while investigators, including an expert from manufacturer Eurocopter, try to determine what went wrong, said Len Leung, operations manager for the Government Flying Service. Leung anticipates the helicopters will be back in service in a few days. The crash caused the first fatalities for the Hong Kong Government Flying Service, which was established in 1993. Eurocopter offices in France couldn't immediately be reached for comment Thursday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeliFrank Posted October 11, 2003 Report Share Posted October 11, 2003 Well, the German Border Patrol is still flying them. Just saw one landing in Hamburg about 2 hours ago, carrying some important politicians. ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heli-Ops Posted October 11, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2003 Helifrank - obviously each operator of the type has to take into consideration their own uses of the aircraft and how their specific aircraft are being effected, and make a decision based upon that. I was at Heli Tech in the UK recently talking to one of the Shell managers from Nigeria and he was saying that they are still having some problems with their EC155s and they were one of the first, if not the first, customers for the type. Every new aircraft has niggling problems but it looks like, according to the newspaper reports, that the problems are quite serious. Time will tell. Heli Ops :devil: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeliFrank Posted October 11, 2003 Report Share Posted October 11, 2003 Heli-Ops, I'm well aware of that, just wanted to point out that no action has been taken so far... at least not in Germany.Our Border Patrol and some local Police Departments who operate the EC-155 have also had a lot of probs and probably still have... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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