On June 2 2016, Dominic Perry wrote an article for Flight Global talking about how the European safety regulators have grounded all Airbus Helicopter H225 an AS332 L2 model rotorcraft after there was proof showing that there is a possible gearbox fault problem that could very well be catastrophic.
There was a fatal crash in April 29 in 2016 from an H225 LN-OJF somewhere in Norway in which 13 crew members and passengers died after the main roto separated from the aircraft.
The European Aviation Safety Agency along with investigators has worked on this case for to come to the conclusion that there are three components that could be the culprit: the gearbox epicyclic module, the conical gearbox housing, or the gearbox suspension bars.
There has been more evidence showing that the gearbox epicyclic module could be the issue due to the nature of its grounding order. According the Norwegian investigation, there were
“metallurgical findings of fatigue and surface degradation in the outer race of a second stage planet gear”
in the epicyclic module.
The European Aviation Safety Agency calls to take preventative action. Here’s what they say.
“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.”
Airbus Helicopters is the helicopter manufacturing division of Airbus Group. The headquarters is located in Marignane, France. Airbus Helicopters was founded in January 1st of 1992. There are over 20,000 employees worldwide. There are production plants location in Spain, United State, Australia, and Brazil.
