Originally Posted by
Twist & Shout
A few points:
We know without a doubt the reason the EC225 crashed: the entire rotor system detached. (The cause for the detachment is under investigation.)
If over the last decade two A320 variants had been found in the ocean, 15nm from their wings. Then 3 weeks ago someone filmed a pair of wings flying down like sycamore seeds, with smoke rising from a crater in the distance, then maybe they would be grounded and/or the traveling public might vote with their feet.
Vote with their feet to what exactly ? You know that an S92 / 189 / 175 is safer do you ? So 5 million flight hours 332/225 and 4 million flight hours 330 , Cumulative 9 plus million hours on Pumas ..... Yet get on a 225 ....NO CHANCE ! Well to be honest I don't fancy my chances getting on anything else ! and as an ex LAE on 332's and now until recently , flying on 332/225 on the North Sea I do know the aircraft pretty well .
We have to get real for a moment , the reliability rate we have come to enjoy from the Puma which has been honed over many decades of experience doesn't come overnight , the bare facts are helicopters are not risk free.... It is not a fixed wing aircraft yet we have become complacent at this aircrafts exemplary service and expect our rotating mass of nuts and bolts to perform like a 737 day in , day out . To which largely the 225/332 does better than anything else in its class even to this day .
3 cases of rotor head detachment in 9000000 hours flying , 2 of which were MGB epicyclic planet gear 2nd stage bearing's , However the MGB was trying to give warning by making metal for a couple of weeks beforehand that were ( for different reasons) unfortunately misdiagnosed and 1 where we don't quite know yet , but we do know that there was no issue with CWP / Marms beforehand and an intact epicyclic ring gear in the wreckage , so nothing like the 2 earlier accidents, yet all this hysteria .....! I'm just glad I get to sit out the remainder of my career in an Aircraft that the 'REAL' experts deem to be the safer option ...........because no matter what you think of the the puma/225 the fact is there is NO better alternative ......Simple .