Gearbox problem grounds Eurocopters
The Government Flying Service has temporarily grounded its four Eurocopter helicopters after mechanical problems were discovered on one of the aircraft.
On Monday, pilots reported a broken oil cooling fan in the main gearbox of one of the EC155 B1 helicopters which had just undergone routine servicing.
The state-of-the-art B1s have been involved in a string of incidents since the GFS acquired five of the aircraft late last year for $79 million apiece.
Less than six weeks ago, one of them crashed on Lantau, killing two GFS pilots. In early August, the cabin door of another B1 fell off.
GFS spokesman and senior pilot West Wu Wai-hung said he expected the fleet to be grounded for no more than two to three days, since a check of its other three B1s had found no problems.
'It's general aviation practice, for precautionary reasons, that we ground the fleet. Our engineers have done an inspection already while we were still waiting for advice from Eurocopter and an airworthiness inspection from the Civil Aviation Department. We have found no other problems,' Mr Wu said.
Representatives from the B1s' Franco-German manufacturer were expected to arrive in Hong Kong last night to assist the investigation.
'We need to know why [the part was broken],' Mr Wu said.
Civil Aviation Department officials said the GFS would be required to file a detailed investigation report as soon as possible.
Since the Lantau accident, use of the B1 fleet has been minimised pending the results of an official investigation that is expected to take several months.
