THE AIR Corps says its air ambulance function “will not be affected” by the grounding of all six of its AgustaWestland AW139 helicopters.
The defence wing confirmed last night that all AW139 flights had been “temporarily suspended” as a “precautionary measure in response to a technical bulletin issued by the company to all users of the aircraft”.
Anglo-Italian manufacturer AgustaWestland issued a mandatory notice of inspection yesterday following an AW139 crash off Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 19th which resulted in the deaths of two crew and two passengers.
The helicopter was under contract to Brazilian energy multinational Petrobras. According to reports, the flight crew had reported a problem with hydraulics before ditching.
AgustaWestland has directed owners to conduct a “precautionary inspection and quarantine of tail rotor blades” on certain makes of its aircraft which had logged more than 600 flying hours or made more than 1,500 landings. Inspections are focused on the tail rotor and rotor blades to ensure there are “no cracks or signs of damage”, the manufacturer said.
The Air Corps said it had received the notification from AgustaWestland “in relation to an incident which occurred recently involving an AW139 aircraft from outside the State”. “As a result of the incident, the company issued a technical bulletin in relation to the tail rotor blade of AW139 helicopters,” the Air Corps said.
A “temporary suspension of operations” would be lifted when all aspects of the bulletin were “resolved to the satisfaction of the Air Corps Military Aviation Authority (MAA)”, it said.
AW139 helicopters have been in several incidents that involved reported tail rotor gearbox failure.
Last year, 13 people were rescued after an AW139 crashed in Hong Kong harbour. In 2008, eight people died when an AW139 crashed off Abu Dhabi.
In March 2009, former tourism minister Martin Cullen was travelling in an Air Corps AW130 which made an emergency landing in Kerry after a door fell off during flight.
The Air Corps said the suspension would not affect its air ambulance duties, which would be carried out by Eurocopter EC135 helicopters.
“Like the AW139, the EC135 is capable of being fitted with a “life-port” system which allows medical life-support systems to remain operational during flights,” it said.
The six Air Corps AW139s have been in service since November 2006, flying more than 5,000 hours to date.
Under an agreement between the Health Service Executive and the Department of Defence, an AW139 was being fitted out for air ambulance duties to replace the Aerospatiale Alouette helicopters that carried out medical evacuations for 40 years. Unlike the Alouette, the AW139 has night-flight capability.
Protocols for medical evacuations involving organ transplant transfer are being revised after the recent failure to transport Leitrim liver transplant candidate Meadhbh McGivern to hospital on time.
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