Super Pumas

[blackbob]

Sound the 'Rant Alert' alarm, someone

How can these things be allowed to fly again: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-n ... d-40538083

3 of them have crashed into the North Sea in recent years - obviously, with tragic results, as there is no scope for using parachutes or anything else. When a helicopter's complete blade assembly detaches from the rest of the aircraft, in flight, there is no way it can glide gently downwards, as a fixed-wing plane might.

The gearbox on this model is just not durable enough, however much inspection and testing the operators might promise to do. I read that the gearbox which was on one of the crashed helicopters, had at some time been in transit when the vehicle carrying it had been involved in a road accident, and the gearbox may have been in some way damaged; so, in future, any gearbox or component which is similarly in a road accident, will be discarded and not fitted to an operational helicopter. How ridiculous is that? Why not just impose a maximum working altitude, so that when the gearbox fails in flight, the resulting crash is surviveable? Say, 20 feet?

Offshore workers have to use these things to commute to work, like other people use buses or trains. They have to be, not just safe, but perceived as safe. And surely, with their history, people will never feel comfortable flying in them.

Every Super Puma should be recalled and written off and scrapped, and melted down and made into something useful.

Sorry everyone. I have never flown in a helicopter; but in my time as a taxi driver, I remember taking one guy to the airport, who knew he was about to be travelling in a Super Puma, immediately after a previous flight suspension, following a previous fatal crash. And he was, somewhat, nervous. I don't think it was my driving...

[oehrick]

Since they closed the little heliport at Yarmouth, rig copters are coming into Norwich airport with a flight path over our village, at times they seem close to your suggested ceiling as you can smell the unburned avgas! I guess we see around 40 flights a day (not bad for a conservation area supposed to protect the environment!) and I often wonder what the overall safety record is - don't know what types or models but all single rotor type and not huge capacity.

You can expect the military to push the envelope in terms of use but commercial stuff should be under full CAA control & surveillance ?? The NDT testing of components is pretty good at finding the sort of hidden flaws caused by impact and fatigue and where there is a history of failures even if the operators or CAA don't zero in, the insurance companies would, makes no sense. There is an ex owner of a local copter service down in the village, if I can remember, I'll ask him what reputation the super pumas have next time I see him.

Offshore work has always carried a premium because of the risks involved but safety of the 'bus' to work shouldn't be high on that list due to avoidable defects !

It may be Bob that your uncomfortable passenger had expected a more conventional sort of taxi rather than a Major with an armchair fitted to the TPL or transport box, can't have been your driving

Now Chinooks, they always sound to me as if they are struggling to stay aloft even when empty.