Notable Incidents and Accidents
- In the early years of service, the EH101 and its variants experienced tail rotor hub cracking issues. A British Merlin crashed on March 30, 2004 due to tail rotor hub cracking. The CH-149 Cormorant has been grounded/limited flight status multiple times with these cracks being one of the causes; all 15 aircraft in Canadian inventory showed cracks of varying degrees shortly after entry into service in 2004. Subsequent re-engineering by AgustaWestland resulted in newer hubs in 2005. Out of the 6 aircraft which had the new hubs installed, 3 showed cracking one month later. AgustaWestland has since eliminated this issue with the development of a new Articulated Tail Rotor (ATR) with elastometric bearings for the EH101/AW101, which is based on the proven ATR used on the AW139 medium-twin helicopter. The ATR is now standard issue on new AW101s and is offered for retrofit on existing fleets.
- On 13 July 2006, a CH-149 of 413 Transport and Rescue Squadron crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia killing three personnel and injuring four during a joint search and rescue exercise. Mechanical failure was formally ruled out as the cause of the crash. On 11 March 2008, the Directorate of Flight Safety for the Canadian Forces has announced that it was pilot error that caused the 2006 crash, and that Air Force officials were aware of the lack of training that pilots were receiving. Preliminary reports indicate that pilots were unaware of how to use the autopilot feature and thus a controlled flight into terrain occurred causing the deaths of three airmen.
Read more about this topic: AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant
Famous quotes containing the words notable and/or incidents:
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