Originally Posted by
Cyclic Hotline
Yes, I completely agree, which is why I never commented on the original story from the time of publication. The real result was that all concerned were rescued with no lives lost - this was a heavy-duty mission with a notable outcome. However, when this situation is spun into; "The Cormorant helicopter and its RCAF crews have served Canadians with exemplary service over the past 20-years, and this continues as evidenced during recent missions, such as the rescue of 31 people from a sinking offshore scallop dragger off the coast of Nova Scotia in 2021", then I'm going to call BS on this claim. The Cormorant was a complete and utter failure in this call. The two machines both broke down, and they even had to leave their crewmen behind on a sinking ship at night, in huge seas. Fortunately, the location was accessible by the US Coastguard who actually did the real lifting with a Jayhawk, although the final six had to jump into the sea and get rescued by boat. The history of failure from the Cormorant has been well detailed over the years, and now it's time for a mid-life update, and all the politics and conniving that goes on at the CANSEC military show results in a press release of this nature - which is actually commercially produced FAKE NEWS.
There is one other little throw-away story in that Press Release - the disastrous deployment of the Cormorant to 424 Squadron at Trenton.
This is another embarrising failure for this platform, as the aircraft ended up as cannibalized hulks sitting in the corner of the hangar for years, before getting a huge investment to actually return them to service. These were the primary SAR machines for the vast territory that is Canada, Instead, the squadron made do with their Bell CH-146 (412) Griffons to essentially provide coverage for the nation! I wouldn't recommend getting too deep into promoting that story, as it is another example of the failure of the Cormorant.
So essentially, AW "awarded" the "Cormorant Trophy" to the only operator of the Cormorant in the World, or rather to their selected vendors and team members who support the platform, but it doesn't specify to whom, or for what. I'm confused now - did AW just award themselves the Cormorant Trophy for their own exemplary product, which dramatically failed in the midst of a major rescue mission?
I'm all ears.
But compared to the NH90 troubles that we reading on this forum??? what is the serviciability of the Cormorant?
The hulks you mention were they not the ill fated VH-71 Kestrels from Pax River that in previous life were Italian Marina ASH version for their San MArco Marine Corps??
cheers