Japanese helicopter wrecks

[Bellyup]

Is anyone familiar with what happens to helicopters that are involved in accidents in Japan? It seems that aircraft that receive what would be classified as substantial damage (rebuildable) dissappear. Is it mandatory to scrap them? Are there aircraft salvage dealers and boneyards in Japan? If so does anybody have contact info for them? Thanks for the input.

[spinwing]

Mmmm....

I think you might find that just like anywhere ... the airframe is assessed and if found to be rebuildable or repairable ...it is!

If found to be un-repairable the insurance value is paid out, the wreck then becomes the property of the insurer and it is then usually disposed of by tender.

There are many organisations which will then buy those wrecks to get various bits of hardware to repair/overhaul for the spares market.

Cheers :ooh:

[havick]

I know Mc Dermott Aviation has a bunch of Jap (Fuji) 205's in a hangar up in QLD. I'm not sure if they were damaged or not, but they have either re-built or awaiting CoA to fly.

This was about 3 years ago.

[Bellyup]

Does Bell consider the Fuji parts the same as the Agusta parts as not airworthy on any of their products?

[Semi Rigid]

Quite a few damaged Japanese machines end up in Aus & NZ where they are rebuilt & given a new lease of life & often exported again at considerable profit. KawasakiHughes 500 D & C's built under licence in Japan are not allowed to be sold from Japan to North America I think because of the licence arrangements.

[Shawn Coyle]

I seem to recall that the Japanese have a 20 year life limit on all commercial aircraft, but could be wrong on some of the details.

[widgeon]

http://www.mlit.go.jp/koku/english/09_data/06_aircrafts.html
No info on service life but interesting how the Helo fleet has shrunk .
I heard that there were some significant tax changes that made ownership less attractive for businesses. I recall a Japanese BK that turned up in Canada and had basically all the dynamic components changed out to meet C of A requirements.

[Bellthorpe]

I bought one helicopter in Japan that had blade damage. The Japanese view was that the blades had to be written off. Our view was that they could be repaired. Which they were, when we brought the machine back to Australia.