Rescue helicopters in the North of England have been grounded following safety concerns.
Both of the Yorkshire Air Ambulances and one of the Great North Air Ambulances are out of action after a potential fault was found in the McDonnell Douglas 902 series, which are also used by five police forces and helicopter ambulance services in London, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.
Last week, the Great North Ambulance twice airlifted members of Patterdale Moutain Rescue teams to incidents in the Lake District, and took casualties to hospital.
It is thought an internal fan system in the tail of the aircraft belonging to the London Air Ambulance developed a fault. All 902s have been stopped from carrying out services as a result.
The helicopters will be examined at the leasing company in Gloucestershire before they are allowed back into service.
Search-and-rescue helicopters belonging to the RAF, Royal Navy and Coastguard are not affected.
Guest
13 August 2008No mention of the relative age of the faulty aircraft to the others. No mention of how long the different aircraft have been in service, nor the type as a whole, nor how many trouble-free flying hours each has clocked up (and the type as a whole). That information would allow those of us who might end up in one of these to make a valid risk assessment of a flight in one. That is academic at present as they are all reasonably grounded, but the chances are high that no type fault will be found....
The Piglit
14 August 2008Re the above post. Chance is not something I would like to take with the maintanence of me bike let alone a helicopter.