THE Royal Air Force Wessex helicopter crash during Severe Tropical Storm Becky was the second involving the RAF's choppers in the past month, the Sunday Morning Post can reveal.
One of the RAF's eight Wessex helicopters in Hong Kong damaged its fuel tank on a ridge during a joint forces anti-smuggling operation on an outlying island in mid-August. No one was injured.
The pilot, Squadron Leader Steve Murkin, flew the damaged helicopter, leaking fuel, back to Stanley Fort. The flight took place during a period when squadron leaders worldwide had been told to ban unnecessary flying of the Wessex due to investigations into the safety record of the choppers, designed almost 30 years ago.
In the August incident, a group of anti-smuggling personnel had been dropped off on an island by a helicopter of the 660 Squadron Army Air Corps. The pilot declined to go back to pick up the men, saying the location for the manoeuvre was too dangerous.
The RAF then offered to pick up the men, and sent the Wessex.
The incident was not reported to the RAF's flight safety committee and the damaged Wessex was flown back to base at Sek Kong the next day, still leaking fuel.
Squadron Leader Murkin last night described the incident as ''minor'', saying: ''The pipe was knocked off by a rock, which is normal. We knock the bottom of the helicopter a lot and they are built to take it. There was never any danger.