Army grounds Apache fleet for safety checks
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army has grounded its entire fleet of Apache attack helicopters to inspect the tail rotors on the aircraft, an Army spokesman said Thursday.
The inspection was ordered as a precautionary measure following a June 11 incident involving a faulty tail rotor on an Israel Apache, spokesman Thomas Collins said.
"This action is a precautionary result of an Israeli AH-64A aircraft incident where the tail rotor head assembly separated from the aircraft in flight,'' Collins said.
Collins said each inspection would take about 30 minutes and would determine whether the tail rotor needed to be replaced. He could not say when the inspections began or how long they would take to complete.
"We're trying to accomplish the inspection as quickly as possible, but we also have to be as thorough as possible because the safety of our soldiers is of paramount importance,'' he said.
Collins said the tail rotor on the Israeli helicopter came apart during a routine flight. The aircraft landed safely at an Israeli air base, he said, adding that an investigation was under way to determine the cause of that incident.
The AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, built by Boeing Co (BA.N), have been grounded twice before, both times to check potentially dangerous tail rotor problems. The tail rotor controls the aircraft's ability to turn left or right.
The fleet was grounded in December 2000 after the discovery of a faulty tail rotor "swashplate'' assembly and in November 1999 after the Army found suspect rotor bearings and transmission problems following crashes.
Six Army Apaches crashed in 1999. Army officials said investigators found that a heating process used by Boeing to make the bearing assembly extra hard led to stress corrosion fractures in the bearings. ^ REUTERS