If this is true regarding CAA's actions then I would be most concerned since I believe that the incident only took place late last week - how on earth did the board of equiry convene so rapidly and the final CAA report get completed so quickly so that they (CAA) could make such a quick decision - sounds like a typical case of the "CAA tail wagging the dog" scenario - maybe someone from CAA could shed some light - do I sense bias here........
This incident is gathering much attention amongst the pilots/instructors and operators locally - time for Eurcopter to do some serious damage control. Rumour has it that the tail rotor failures are an illegal excercise - maybe the marketing youngster from Eurocopter SA can give the industry some valuable info in this respect, although with the past history I along with many others won't be holding our breath for a reply!
Its interesting to note that many EC 120 instructors have been doing this excercise as the manual does make mention of tail rotor failures - no mention at all though of it being illegal as I bet this will eat into EC 120 sales worldwide - should we be considering the Bell option rather - certainly seems so as the cloud of mystery thickens surounding this one.
What about the rest of the EC 120 instructors - will they also need to attend a so called "approved EC 120 instructors course" - hopefully Eurcopter will be footing the bill for this - a valuable lesson learn't (ouch) for not communicating to important information to the end user.