EH-101 Woes in Canada Continue
Air force juggles rescue choppers
The Daily News (Halifax)
Fri 30 Sep 2005
Page: 11
Byline: Chris Lambie
The air force is juggling its fleet of relatively new search and rescue
helicopters around the country because of cracking problems.
Two CH-149 Cormorant helicopters from Trenton, Ont., will head east to
Greenwood and to Gander, N.L., to ensure those bases always have two
choppers on standby.
"They want to make sure that each search and rescue squadron on the coast
has at least two perfectly running aircraft all the time, " said Capt. John
Pulchny of 14 Wing Greenwood.
The Annapolis Valley base now has three Cormorants. Two are flying and one
is in maintenance. A fourth is on loan to Trenton.
The Ontario base will use Griffon helicopters for search and rescue until at
least next spring.
The military blames the Cormorant move on ongoing problems with cracked tail
rotor assemblies and a shortage of spares, including main gearboxes and main
rotor heads.
Canada started to buy the helicopter in 2001. But it grounded the 15
choppers temporarily in October 2004 after discovering cracks in the tail
rotor half hubs. A British Royal Navy version of the chopper crashed because
of the same problem.
According to newly released documents, Cormorant crews have faced 182
serious incidents, often forcing them to execute emergency landings or abort
takeoff. Canadian military engineers have been working on finding the cause
of the cracks for almost a year with no results. They have opted to
repeatedly replace parts and restrict flights.