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Helicopter missing in the Med

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Helicopter missing in the Med

Old 29th Apr 2020, 19:45
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Helicopter missing in the Med

Norwegian news is reporting that a helicopter operating from a Canadian warship is missing between Italy and Greece. No further news.
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Old 29th Apr 2020, 21:44
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Some more information about type

https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/ne...-coast-443793/
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Old 29th Apr 2020, 22:23
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https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/235604
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Old 29th Apr 2020, 22:38
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Canadian military helicopter reported missing while operating in Mediterranean


Defence officials are scrambling following reports a Canadian military helicopter has gone missing while participating in a NATO operation in the Mediterranean Sea.

Greek TV says the helicopter, which is believed to have been one of the Royal Canadian Air Force’s new Cyclones, went missing in the sea between Greece and Italy while operating off a Canadian frigate.

A NATO spokeswoman confirmed an incident involving a helicopter from a ship under NATO command and says a search-and-rescue operation is underway, but did not reveal the nationality of the aircraft or vessels.

HMCS Fredericton left Halifax for a six-month deployment around Europe in January with a Cyclone on board, which included a port call in Italy in March.

The military’s 18 Cyclone helicopters carry four-person crews and first began flying real missions in late 2018 after more than a decade of developmental challenges and delays.


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Old 30th Apr 2020, 04:17
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Sadly 1 dead person recovered & 5 missing.
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Old 30th Apr 2020, 11:56
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How deep is the water?
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Old 30th Apr 2020, 12:10
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Originally Posted by gulliBell
How deep is the water?
South west of Kefalonia it goes quickly over 2000 meters.
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Old 30th Apr 2020, 14:21
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Very sad - RIP - hope they locate and recover wreckage to try and work out what happened. Shame that Echo or Enterprise isn't in the Med... hopefully, someone has got something close-by that can locate it.
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Old 1st May 2020, 05:43
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SEE: RCAF CH-148 down in the Ionian Sea, 1 dead, 5 missing...
According to a June 23, 2014 report.....“The Conservative government has agreed to accept new helicopters to replace Canada’s 50-year-old fleet of Sea Kings even though they don’t meet a key requirement recommended for marine helicopters by Canada’s air safety investigator.....the government has agreed to forego...a formerly mandatory safety measure: a 30-minute run-dry standard for its main gear box. The importance of the ability to fly for 30 minutes after a loss of lubrication in the main gear box was reinforced by an investigation into a deadly 2009 crash of a Sikorsky-built helicopter. The gearbox is a kind of linkage between the helicopters engines and its rotor system. It’s packed with lubricating oil that cools the gears and keeps power flowing to the rotors. If a helicopter loses oil in its main gearbox, the system will get too hot and either seize up or otherwise fail. That would lead to a loss of power in the rotor, forcing a helicopter from the sky. A helicopter that meets the run-dry standard can continue flying for 30 minutes even if there’s no oil in the main gear box — a critical feature for helicopters flying hundreds of kilometres out to sea.” https://theaviationist.com/2020/04/3...Cu63ALQ-SNxyk1k
And........"a deadly 2009 crash of a Sikorsky-built helicopter".......well, that's here: Helicopter crash off the coast of Newfoundland - 18 aboard, March 2009
.
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Old 1st May 2020, 12:25
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So you are quite sure that it is gearbox case, again...
Mean, nothing else can go wrong out there in the middle of nothing?!
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Old 1st May 2020, 12:43
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Originally Posted by 9Aplus
gwillie
So you are quite sure that it is gearbox case, again...
Mean, nothing else can go wrong out there in the middle of nothing?!
Obviously no idea what happened but a survivor is unikely if it was the gearbox.

Last edited by atakacs; 2nd May 2020 at 11:17.
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Old 1st May 2020, 13:01
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From CBC news
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said the Cyclone’s flight-data and voice recorders have been recovered after they broke away from the helicopter when it crashed and will soon be returned to Canada for analysis.
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Old 1st May 2020, 13:03
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It must be catastrophic whatever happened. Naval aircraft are not short of radio communication devices and if it just disappeared without an emergency call then then whatever it was must have been almost instantaneous.
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Old 1st May 2020, 14:57
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Yeah, CFIT is instantaneous. A MGB dropping all its oil or a TR falling off or virtually every other mechanical malfunction is not.
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Old 1st May 2020, 15:54
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Apart from the likelihood of CFIT due to the lack of distress comms, there really is nothing in the public domain to go on. To start speculatively grasping at the S-92's weaknesses is currently a waste of time even by pprune's standards! Reports state that they have the recorders, so somebody will know more soon.
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Old 1st May 2020, 17:32
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TV news reports that it disappeared 17 minutes after departure, and that it was in the process of returning to ship. Also that flares had been deployed. Anybody confirm?
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Old 1st May 2020, 19:14
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Originally Posted by YeahYeah
TV news reports that it disappeared 17 minutes after departure, and that it was in the process of returning to ship. Also that flares had been deployed. Anybody confirm?
"Flares deployed" says to me "shot at," perhaps by an IR guided SAM.
(Military aviator).
What did you mean by "flares deployed?" That, or something else?
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Old 1st May 2020, 19:15
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Originally Posted by Lonewolf_50
"Flares deployed" says to me "shot at," perhaps by an IR guided SAM.
(Military aviator).
What did you mean by "flares deployed?" That, or something else?
Probably built in automatic flares in the deployable emergency transmitter/ VFDR-storage?
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Old 2nd May 2020, 00:30
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Originally Posted by CYDC
...the Cyclone’s flight-data and voice recorders have been recovered after they broke away from the helicopter when it crashed...
I've never heard of that happening before.
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Old 2nd May 2020, 02:57
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he flight data recorders were recovered from the debris and are to be analyzed at the National Research Council in Ottawa.

In an interview with CBC News that took place before the search switched to recovery mode, Sajjan acknowledged the difficulty involved in reaching wreckage that may be as much as 3,000 metres below the surface of the Ionian Sea.

Few nations possess that kind of deep-diving capability and Sajjan said he's been talking to NATO's secretary general and allies about the technological options.

"I can assure you we will put in all of the resources necessary," said Sajjan who expressed confidence in the investigation team. "Our folks on the ground will figure what happened."

The debris also is believed to be spread over a wide area on the ocean floor. One expert said that spread suggests something about the forces involved in the crash.

"It suggests a high speed impact" with the ocean, said Michael Byers, a University of British Columbia defence expert who has testified before the Senate on search and rescue.

"That will obviously increase the challenges of the recovery operation, but until we have something that can actually go down there — even just to take pictures — we really won't know what happened to the aircraft."

From CBC news

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