Canadian Sea King crashes off Denmark

[Guardian]

Not much out yet, other than that the crew survived:

Sea King helicopter on a Canadian warship has crashed off Denmark
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

at 17:44 on February 2, 2006, EST.

HALIFAX (CP) - A Sea King helicopter on a Canadian warship has crashed off Denmark. All five crew rescued, a navy source says. 

©The Canadian Press, 2006

Source: http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/NationalNewsArticle.htm?src=n020257A.xml

I can't think of a better bookend to the Liberals' time in power. They began by cancelling the Sea King's replacement, and they finish with another one down.

How fitting.

 

[CallOfDuty]

HMCS Athabaskan Sea King Incident
    OTTAWA, Feb. 2 /CNW Telbec/ - At approximately 1:34 p.m. EST this
afternoon, HMCS Athabaskan's Sea King helicopter, with a crew of five on
board, ditched approximately 50 kilometres off the east coast of Denmark. All
five crewmembers were recovered by the ship and are safe. All have been
examined by the medical officer and have returned to their quarters. Their
families have been advised of the incident.
    The accident occurred while the aircrew practised night landings with the
Sea King off the back of the ship
    The helicopter is in 16 metres of water, marked by a buoy. Salvage
operations may be undertaken pending sea state. Currently the sea state is
calm with half-metre waves and wind speed of less than 10 knots.
    A full investigation into the incident is underway. No further details
are available at this time.

    Background
    ----------

    HMCS Athabaskan, commanded by Captain (Navy) Dave Gardam, is deployed
with the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG 1), a squadron consisting of
destroyers and frigates from the alliance nations. Canadian Commodore Denis
Rouleau took command of the SNMG 1 on Jan 26. HMCS Athabaskan is Commodore
Rouleau 's flagship for SNMG1 - one of four standing elements of NATO Response
Force Rotation 7 (NRF 7).
    HMCS Athabaskan carries a crew of about 300 all ranks, including flight
crew and maintenance technicians

 

[gnplummer421]

Well thank god the crew is allright. Sooo how much longer for replacement choppers? I will read all the posts related to this issue, but man, it sure is taking a long time eh? Maybe this will be a reminder to the minds in charge to do something proactive...mmm sounds like wishfull thinking..

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Sooo how much longer for replacement choppers?

Fall 2008.

Night Deck Landings were never my favourite.  Good to hear that egress training paid off, yet again.

Cheers.

 

[BOSNwife]

My husband is on that ship right now.
He also experienced the crash on IRO in 2003.
Give us new Helo's NOW!!

 

[Inch]

Fall 2008.

Night Deck Landings were never my favourite.  Good to hear that egress training paid off, yet again.

Cheers.

Too bad we only do it every 5 years. Should be every other year, alternating with wet dinghy.

But that's just my opinion.

Glad the boys got out alright.

 

[Cannoneer No. 4]

 

[Inch]

Nice picture, wrong ship type. That looks like the deck of a tanker, as the lack of tracks on the deck would indicate.

 

[Good2Golf]

Good to hear crew's all right and all families advised!

Inch, you guys only dunk once every 5 years?  Last time I checked, tac hel has to dunk once a tour, which often is less thanfive years.  I would think you guys would dunk annually, or at least bi-annually!  SKT, weren't you on AthaB?

I hope more of this makes its way out to the press again...nothing like freshinging up everybody's recollection of things, courtesy of political cartoonist Graeme MacKay!  ;D

Cheers,
Duey

 

[Inch]

Inch, you guys only dunk once every 5 years?  Last time I checked, tac hel has to dunk once a tour, which often is less thanfive years.  I would think you guys would dunk annually, or at least bi-annually!  SKT, weren't you on AthaB?

Cheers,
Duey

I'm in total agreement. What's really screwed up is that we have to do NBCD refreshers every 3 years and dunker every 5 years. When was the last time anyone was gassed? Considering we spend the large majority of our flight hours over water, I can think of 5 guys in addition to us here that would agree dunker is a lifesaver and should be at least bi-annually, but alas, the almighty dollar wins again.

 

[Gunnerlove]

So are our rescue EH-101s still imitating Ferrari's?

Looking sexy while parked in the garage waiting for parts. On the plus side can't crash when tied up at the ranch.

 

[DBA]

Good to hear the crew got out ok. As for refresher training the frequency should also be based off how the skills degrade over time and not just more important equals more often. If they can perform the procedures up to the desired standard with refresher training every X years then your fine.

 

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Montreal's Sea King.  The other pic was Athapaskan's Sea King landing on the Frankfurt Am Main.

 

[Armymatters]

Is the Sea King repairable?  I am hearing from the CBC that the Sea King is under 16 metres of water. Good luck to whoever is going to try to recover it. 

At least the crew is ok...

 

[Acorn]

I'm surprised no one has associated the fact that this occurred off Denmark

Coincidence?

 

[Armymatters]

I'm surprised no one has associated the fact that this occurred off Denmark

Coincidence?

Probally.  : The CBC is reporting Athabaskan was acting as flagship of the NATO Standing Naval Force in the region. Wonder how the mission is going to be affected, now Athabaskan is short of a helo. Are we going to ferry a new Sea King to her, or continue without a helo?

 

[Zell_Dietrich]

When I heard about this,  I didn't care about who misappropriated funds, for personal/political reasons, or who's lack of a moral-backbone which would rather risk lives than maybe be embarrassed by admitting a mistake....

" All five crew rescued, a navy source says. "
Thats what I cared about.  Lets hope we're all as fortunate in the future.

 

[Spr.Earl]

Thank God the lad's were rescued!
Yup and the Gov. is being hit with a Billion $ Court action now for the last nixed choppr deal.
Thank God our boy's are well trained to fly and maintain the old machines. 

 

[Slim]

I think that Cretien and everyone of his thief political cronies aught to go and have a ride on a malfunctioning SeaThing ending with a crash into 16 meters of water...Just before the lot of them drown someone can casually mention that new choppers would've been great when they were origionally contracted, wouldn't they?!

Glad the crew all got out without serious injury.

 

[ChopperHead]

http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060202/seaking_crash_060202

"The single-rotor helicopters were first purchased in 1963, and in 2004, 28 were still in use. They often experience flameouts, engine stalls, generator failures, and have been described as "flying coffins" by members of the military.

I liked this little tid bit of info. Has anyone actually heard someone call them flying coffins?
I hope this is a kick in the ass for the new government to get those helicopters and get them as quick as possible and dont let what happened before happen again.