Australia joins Germany in
grounding Tiger attack helicopters
15 AUGUST, 2017 - SOURCE:
FLIGHTGLOBAL.COM - BY: DOMINIC PERRY - LONDON
Australia has joined Germany in grounding
its fleet of Airbus Helicopters Tiger attack rotorcraft in the wake of a fatal
crash in Mali in which two crew members were killed.
Investigations are ongoing into
the late July accident involving a German army-operated example that came down
in unexplained circumstances around 44nm (82km) northeast of Gao.
Berlin immediately withdrew its
Tigers from service, although its four aircraft remaining in Mali – deployed as
part of a multinational fight against an Islamic insurgency – will be allowed
to perform missions in emergency situations, says its defence ministry.
Australia on 14 August decided
to cease flying its Tiger armed reconnaissance helicopters "until further
information becomes available".
Spain is also thought to have
suspended flights of its army's Tiger inventory, although there has been no
official confirmation of the move.
Madrid’s defence ministry says:
"The army will follow the technical recommendations of the manufacturer
once it conducts the necessary investigations and checks to find out what could
have caused the accident."
France, the other operator of
the Tiger, continues to fly its helicopters in Mali, but most domestic training
missions are on hold in any case because of the summer holidays.
So far, little detail has been
released about the circumstances of the crash, but statements from the German
defence ministry indicate that the Tiger lost its main rotor blades after
entering into a sudden steep descent.
It hit the ground around 10s
later, and the wreckage was consumed by a post-impact fire.
Crash investigators have
recovered the helicopter’s flight-data recorders, but both are heavily damaged
and may be unable to be accessed.
With Airbus Helicopters not
directly participating in the accident probe, it was required, as part of its
contract with the nations, to issue a notice advising that the Tiger is unsafe,
without being able to offer any safety guidance. This was released shortly
after the crash and updated on 10 August.
"Airbus Helicopters
declares [an] UNSAFE condition for all Tiger versions. AH can neither identify
the part, the failure of which would lead to the accident, nor the origin of
the failure (design, manufacturing, maintenance). Consequently, AH is not in
the position to propose a protective measure," says the warning.
However, the manufacturer
cautions that the update is not based "on additional information or
possible root causes of the accident".
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