Originally Posted by
birmingham
I think the key statement is this ...
"The nature of the catastrophic failure of the LN-OJF main rotor system indicates that the current means to detect a failure in advance are not effective."
It's important that AH respond to this as quickly as possible so as we can agree on the initial cause. Is this a simple repeat of REDL or did the Airbus scenario occur and the resulting load trigger the secondary fatigue failure of the weakened planetary stage .
What is now undeniable (surely) is that the industry has a real problem with MGBs in mid range shuttles. 3 total loss fatal accidents since 2009 in three types (S92, L2 and 225). This is not just an issue with Pumas there will need to be a major reappraisal of the design of these units to try and get these accident rates down.
It's also worth noting that, if the ultimate cause of the accident is in the H225 epicyclic, the AS332L2 uses the same module as the H225 , so they would be similarly affected.