PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Sikorsky S-76: Ask Nick Lappos
View Single Post
Old 25th Aug 2007, 22:08
  #964 (permalink)  
Phone Wind
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Lost and Legless somewhere in LaLaLand
Age: 77
Posts: 481
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Schreiner Airways (operating in Nigeria as Aero Contractors Nigeria) around 2000/2001 had about a 1 metre inboard section of a blade break off in flight from an S76B (either 5N-BBK or 5N-SDW). The rear edge of the main spar was visible for nearly 1 metre and some outer skin had been torn off, exposing the filler foam for around another half metre. It landed safely on a drill ship and was flown back to Port Harcourt after a spare (A+) blade had been borrowed from Bristow and shipped out that night. It was due to a manufacturing defect on a particular batch of blades all of which were grounded until the manufacturer sent out specialist repair teams to fit strengthening patches on the inboard sections of the bad batch.
Phone Wind is offline