DanTruck and others
I agree that this subject is emotive because of the loss of lives. I too lost a friend in that accident and I too can get emotional about it.
The aircraft operator suffered a lightning strike when a given set of 4 blades were fitted to BHBF 3 years ago. They obviously removed them post strike. Then, maintenance management would have gone to Sikorsky, the OEM and said "what can we do with these blades, should we scrap them or can they be repaired?"
I don't think any of us know whether any of the other 3 blades in the set of 4 on BF were scrapped or whether they were all repaired. It might even be that this was the least damaged and the others were scrapped, I dont know.
The OEM had the call as to whether the blades were repaired or not. If they said "scrap them", Bristow would have scrapped them without question.
The implication by some in this thread is that there was a conspiracy betweeen Bristow and Sikorsky to "save a buck" by returning an essentially unairworthy blade to service. That is absolutely not correct. The blade conecrned was believed by all involved to be airworthy at the time of re installation onto BJVX.
Furthermore, the lightning strike caused further development of a pre-existing manufacturing fault. That fault had been present since the blade was new. Without the strike but with the fault, or without the fault but with the strike, the failure may not have propogated as quickly, who knows.
Bristow is a good operator and would not knowingly risk the lives of passengers to save a buck or even several bucks. People who run companies know the costs of having an accident and to suggest that they would risk lives by saving money on a new versus repaired blade is asonine.
LE