Eurocopter EC135 in Glasgow Pub Crash Was Grounded Last Year

Stephen Pope

Thursday, December 05, 2013 at 10:23 PM ET

Verified

** Eurocopter EC135, similar to the one involved
in the crash. **

Key Takeaways:

The operator of the police helicopter that crashed in Glasgow, Bond Air Services, temporarily grounded its entire fleet of Eurocopter EC135s last year due to concerns about rotor hub shaft cracks.
This grounding followed the discovery of cracks in EC135 rotor hub shafts, including one in Bond's own fleet, which led to an emergency airworthiness directive from the European safety agency (EASA).
While accident investigators have not yet linked the past grounding issue to the recent crash, the rotor hub shaft defect will be a specific area of consideration in their ongoing investigation.
Bond Air Services resumed operations with frequent inspections but remained concerned that Eurocopter had not identified the root cause of the shaft cracks.

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The operator of the police helicopter that crashed through the roof of a Glasgow pub last Friday grounded its entire fleet of Eurocopter EC135s for a time last year amid serious concerns about rotor hub shaft cracks, according to public records.

Accident investigators in the U.K. haven’t indicated that the grounding played a role in the crash, which claimed the lives of nine people and injured dozens inside the packed pub, but say the issue nonetheless will be one area they and Eurocopter technical personnel will consider as the search for clues into what went wrong continues.