EUROCOPTER EC135
Helikoptertypen som styrtet i Skottland ble satt på bakken hos Bond
Norsk Luftambulanse har ti helikopter av samme type.
Publisert: 13. desember 2013 kl. 10:53 - Oppdatert: 13. desember 2013 kl. 11:01
Selskapet som eide politihelikopteret som styrtet i en pub i Skottland, satte alle helikopter av samme type på bakken torsdag.
Det britiske selskapet Bond Aviation opplyste at de tok hele sin flåte bestående av 38 helikoptre av typen EC135 ut av drift etter å ha oppdaget en teknisk feil i ett av dem.
Det gjorde at en tredel av alle britiske luftambulanser og politihelikoptre ble tatt ut av tjeneste, men seinere på dagen ble de noen av dem satt i drift igjen.
Det var et tilsvarende helikopter som selskapet leide ut til politiet og som styrtet inn i en pub i Glasgow i Skottland 29. november. Ti mennesker omkom i ulykken.
– Vi har behandlet dette nøye, men det er kun funnet en indikatorfeil på et av de andre helikoptrene til Bond, ikke på det som styrtet. Vi har ikke fått pålegg om å sette våre på bakken, verken fra norske luftfartsmyndigheter eller fra produsenten, sier kommunikasjonsrådgiver Randi R. Buckley i Norsk Luftambulanse til NTB.
LONDON (Reuters) - British-based air services company Bond Aviation said on Thursday it had suspended its global fleet of 38 EC135 helicopters following discovery of a technical fault in one.
A Bond Aviation EC135 helicopter leased to the police dropped from the sky onto a pub in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 29, killing three crew and seven others. Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has so far found no evidence of engine or gearbox failure in that helicopter.
The suspension took one third of Britain's emergency ambulance and police helicopters temporarily out of service but some later in the day were returned to operations.
A company spokeswoman said one of the helicopters made by the Eurocopter subsidiary of aerospace group EADS had experienced an "indication defect" on Wednesday but declined to give more details of the incident.
"We are continuing to investigate that technical fault that resulted in us temporarily suspending operations," she said.
It is the latest in a spate of helicopter incidents in Britain and has prompted calls from a transport union for a safety inquiry.
In August, four oil rig contractors were killed when a Super Puma L2 made by Eurocopter crashed into the sea off Shetland's southern coast, causing a temporary halt on all Puma flights. An investigation found no technical fault.
The Bond Aviation spokesman said the company was left with 22 EC135 helicopters operating in Britain after the Scotland crash and these had been suspended as a precautionary measure. Sixteen more are overseas, in Ireland and Australia.
Eurocopter said in a statement it was aware of a reported issue with the fuel indication system of the suspended helicopters but said some of the Bond aircraft were already back in service.
Eurocopter did not recommend any specific action regarding the EC135 fleet in service around the world, it added.
CALLS FOR SAFETY INQUIRY
Eurocopter stressed it was only Bond Aviation's fleet that had been suspended from flying, which was standard procedure after a reported incident. Other EC135s globally were continuing to operate as normal.
"Eurocopter does not recommend any further action for the other EC135 aircraft in service around the world," it said in a statement.
Offshore union RMT called for a full public inquiry into helicopter safety both onshore and offshore, demanding to know if there was any connection between the three incidents.
"There is now a widespread and deep-seated concern over the whole issue of helicopter safety," RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said in a statement.
"All of those workers using the helicopters, whether they be offshore, police, ambulance, coastguard or any other industry, have a right to know that their place of work is safe and that means establishing the full facts as an absolute matter of urgency."
Established in 1961, Bond provides search and rescue, offshore crew-change transport, air ambulance support, police helicopter support, and specialist services such as offshore wind farm and lighthouse maintenance, and aerial lifting.
Bond is owned by the UK-based Avincis Group, a privately owned provider of aerial services for critical operations, which is currently in exclusive talks with engineering support services company Babcock International Group which could result in Babcock taking a stake.
A spokesman for Babcock said on Thursday that the situation was unchanged and talks were continuing.
(Additional reporting by Christine Murray in London and Tim Hepher in Paris, Editing by Stephen Addison, Ralph Boulton and Cynthia Osterman
Midlands Air Ambulance grounded over Glasgow crash safety fears
Service - which regularly flies life-saving missions to Coventry and Warwickshire - uses same type of helicopter which crashed into Clutha Vaults pub last month
An air ambulance which uses the same type of helicopter as the one which crashed into a Glasgow pub has grounded its aircraft over safety fears.
The Midlands Air Ambulance which operates a total of three Eurocopter EC135s from bases in Staffordshire and Worcestershire, regularly flies life-saving missions to Coventry and Warwickshire.
Last night one of the aircraft was cleared for flight.
The Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance uses a different chopper.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said there was "no evidence of major mechanical disruption of either engine" of the Police Scotland EC135 which crashed into The Clutha pub on November 29, killing nine people.
But Bond Air Services, which supplies EC135s across the UK, found a fuel gauge fault on the North West Air Ambulance yesterday.
In a statement, Bond said: "During normal operations yesterday, one of our EC135 fleet has experienced an indication defect that requires further technical investigation.
"Therefore as a precautionary measure we have temporarily suspended service operations whilst we undertake detailed diagnosis."
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "As a service we still have access to two air ambulance - those operated by Warwickshire and Northampton Air Ambulance and Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance so we have no concerns about patients being put at risk by this situation.
"In addition, the crews that would have been flying today will respond on land vehicles as they would if the weather had stopped the helicopters flying."
The National Police Air Service (NPAS) operates EC135s from bases in Birmingham, Husbands Bosworth in Leicestershire and Halfpenny Green in Staffordshire, but has no plans to ground its aircraft.
Chief Supt Ian Whitehouse, of the NPAS, said: "Our decision on whether or not to suspend operations or ground any NPAS aircraft is based on advice issued by the Civil Aviation Authority - the UK's aviation regulator and original equipment manufacturers.
"There is currently no notice in place
from the CAA or the original equipment manufacturers to ground any aircraft and so we have not done so.
"If such a notice is put in place then we would immediately consider it.
"In light of the issue identified by Bond, as a precautionary measure, we are increasing fuel levels on all NPAS EC135 aircraft and increasing the minimum level of fuel which pilots are allowed to operate on."
Det britiske selskapet Bond Aviation opplyste at de tok hele sin flåte bestående av 38 helikoptre av typen EC135 ut av drift etter å ha oppdaget en teknisk feil i ett av dem.
Det gjorde at en tredel av alle britiske luftambulanser og politihelikoptre ble tatt ut av tjeneste, men seinere på dagen ble de noen av dem satt i drift igjen.
Det var et tilsvarende helikopter som selskapet leide ut til politiet og som styrtet inn i en pub i Glasgow i Skottland 29. november. Ti mennesker omkom i ulykken.
Helikoptre i Norge
Norsk Luftambulanse har ti helikoptre av samme type, men feilen som er oppdaget i Bond Aviation, får ingen følger for driften i Norge.– Vi har behandlet dette nøye, men det er kun funnet en indikatorfeil på et av de andre helikoptrene til Bond, ikke på det som styrtet. Vi har ikke fått pålegg om å sette våre på bakken, verken fra norske luftfartsmyndigheter eller fra produsenten, sier kommunikasjonsrådgiver Randi R. Buckley i Norsk Luftambulanse til NTB.
Bond Aviation grounds EC135 helicopter fleet
LONDON
A Bond Aviation EC135 helicopter leased to the police dropped from the sky onto a pub in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 29, killing three crew and seven others. Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has so far found no evidence of engine or gearbox failure in that helicopter.
The suspension took one third of Britain's emergency ambulance and police helicopters temporarily out of service but some later in the day were returned to operations.
A company spokeswoman said one of the helicopters made by the Eurocopter subsidiary of aerospace group EADS had experienced an "indication defect" on Wednesday but declined to give more details of the incident.
"We are continuing to investigate that technical fault that resulted in us temporarily suspending operations," she said.
It is the latest in a spate of helicopter incidents in Britain and has prompted calls from a transport union for a safety inquiry.
In August, four oil rig contractors were killed when a Super Puma L2 made by Eurocopter crashed into the sea off Shetland's southern coast, causing a temporary halt on all Puma flights. An investigation found no technical fault.
The Bond Aviation spokesman said the company was left with 22 EC135 helicopters operating in Britain after the Scotland crash and these had been suspended as a precautionary measure. Sixteen more are overseas, in Ireland and Australia.
Eurocopter said in a statement it was aware of a reported issue with the fuel indication system of the suspended helicopters but said some of the Bond aircraft were already back in service.
Eurocopter did not recommend any specific action regarding the EC135 fleet in service around the world, it added.
CALLS FOR SAFETY INQUIRY
Eurocopter stressed it was only Bond Aviation's fleet that had been suspended from flying, which was standard procedure after a reported incident. Other EC135s globally were continuing to operate as normal.
"Eurocopter does not recommend any further action for the other EC135 aircraft in service around the world," it said in a statement.
Offshore union RMT called for a full public inquiry into helicopter safety both onshore and offshore, demanding to know if there was any connection between the three incidents.
"There is now a widespread and deep-seated concern over the whole issue of helicopter safety," RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said in a statement.
"All of those workers using the helicopters, whether they be offshore, police, ambulance, coastguard or any other industry, have a right to know that their place of work is safe and that means establishing the full facts as an absolute matter of urgency."
Established in 1961, Bond provides search and rescue, offshore crew-change transport, air ambulance support, police helicopter support, and specialist services such as offshore wind farm and lighthouse maintenance, and aerial lifting.
Bond is owned by the UK-based Avincis Group, a privately owned provider of aerial services for critical operations, which is currently in exclusive talks with engineering support services company Babcock International Group which could result in Babcock taking a stake.
A spokesman for Babcock said on Thursday that the situation was unchanged and talks were continuing.
(Additional reporting by Christine Murray in London and Tim Hepher in Paris, Editing by Stephen Addison, Ralph Boulton and Cynthia Osterman
Midlands Air Ambulance grounded over Glasgow crash safety fears
Service - which regularly flies life-saving missions to Coventry and Warwickshire - uses same type of helicopter which crashed into Clutha Vaults pub last month
An air ambulance which uses the same type of helicopter as the one which crashed into a Glasgow pub has grounded its aircraft over safety fears.
The Midlands Air Ambulance which operates a total of three Eurocopter EC135s from bases in Staffordshire and Worcestershire, regularly flies life-saving missions to Coventry and Warwickshire.
Last night one of the aircraft was cleared for flight.
The Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance uses a different chopper.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said there was "no evidence of major mechanical disruption of either engine" of the Police Scotland EC135 which crashed into The Clutha pub on November 29, killing nine people.
But Bond Air Services, which supplies EC135s across the UK, found a fuel gauge fault on the North West Air Ambulance yesterday.
In a statement, Bond said: "During normal operations yesterday, one of our EC135 fleet has experienced an indication defect that requires further technical investigation.
"Therefore as a precautionary measure we have temporarily suspended service operations whilst we undertake detailed diagnosis."
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "As a service we still have access to two air ambulance - those operated by Warwickshire and Northampton Air Ambulance and Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance so we have no concerns about patients being put at risk by this situation.
"In addition, the crews that would have been flying today will respond on land vehicles as they would if the weather had stopped the helicopters flying."
The National Police Air Service (NPAS) operates EC135s from bases in Birmingham, Husbands Bosworth in Leicestershire and Halfpenny Green in Staffordshire, but has no plans to ground its aircraft.
Chief Supt Ian Whitehouse, of the NPAS, said: "Our decision on whether or not to suspend operations or ground any NPAS aircraft is based on advice issued by the Civil Aviation Authority - the UK's aviation regulator and original equipment manufacturers.
"There is currently no notice in place
from the CAA or the original equipment manufacturers to ground any aircraft and so we have not done so.
"If such a notice is put in place then we would immediately consider it.
"In light of the issue identified by Bond, as a precautionary measure, we are increasing fuel levels on all NPAS EC135 aircraft and increasing the minimum level of fuel which pilots are allowed to operate on."
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