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Old 11th Jun 2008, 01:23
  #104 (permalink)  
BellBoy796
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: United Arab Emirates
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First of all, my heartfelt sympathy to John Hanley, Jr., his siblings and to his Thai family. Also to Obaid al Marashda's family. They'll be living with this accident long after the rest of us have moved on.
Secondly, I'm a long time pilot with ADA and flying the AW139 so have a keener interest in the root cause of this accident than most. I'd like to assure other AW139 pilots that, according to a source very close to the investigation with first hand knowledge of the contents of the FDR and CVR, that there was no technical fault with the helicopter. The full report is forthcoming.
I'm no apologist for ADA but to its credit it has been made crystal clear to its pilots that they have the full backing of the company if forced to deny a VIP access to the front seats. This being the Middle East such a memo, of course, is trumped by a phone call from someone more 'connected' than the ADA manager who wrote the memo, but it does show the intent is there to back up its crews should the situation John faced be repeated.
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