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Originally Posted by Savoia
Regarding Qatar 1 Gulf Helicopters appear to be abrogating any responsibility in respect of their response to the event stating that AW carried-out all the work to the tailboom (repair and inspection). Commentators are however questioning the extent of the inspection as well as some of the procedures (relating to flight operations) prior to the aircraft being grounded. One member of PPRuNe mailed me to say that the tail-collapse occurred while trying to initiate taxi with the parking brake on and there are other comments besides.
In respect of Qatar 2 I cannot make any headway. I have received several PM's from people 'in the know' claiming (categorically) that a 'locking tool' of some description had been left attached to the tail rotor, a claim that Gulf Helicopters emphatically denies.
Savoia,
if you looked at Note 4, QHC has taken into service 9A-GHC even after the severe tail stike occurred during operations (such condition has been not fully declared at the moment of the subsequent accident on the tarmac).
Looking at the QCAA report - confidential, not shareable but available on every Maintenance Manager desk
- all the stress tests conducted with the relevant authorities representatives on a set of Tail Assy (even with major debonding modes) have provided negative results.
There is no connection between the accident and the taxiing phase, but between the energy released by the accident which has compromised the Tail Assy.
Moreover, regarding the TR Blades - it is obviously visible that the failure mode is the same, but it is not possible to demonstrate, if not during an investigative assessment, which is the root cause.