Cal Fryer (ZAPPER) sent me this shot of a recent "mishap" nearby him in Doha Qatar. Here is what he said,
"Hi Rick,
I have attached a picture of Gulf Helicopters AW139 that had an ‘incident’ up in Doha Qatar a couple of days ago. They had embarked their passengers and were starting to taxi for takeoff when the tailboom failed and literally broke off.
Talk about a lucky escape, no one was hurt! A couple of minutes later and it would have been a different story. I used to fly the 139 when I worked for Abu Dhabi Aviation, it is a powerful helicopter and made mostly of composites. There is definitely a problem here in the Middle East with the temperatures we get during the day and the debonding of the composite components. Looks like someone will have to come up with better bonding agents. There will be an investigation by the manufacturer Agusta/Westland on this one. I fully expected to see the 139’s temporarily grounded world wide but that never transpired?
Cal"
Talk about a close call. As he stated, if this had only happed a few moments later I think the outcome would have been far worse. Choppers have a fairly short taxi before going airborne so it would have been soon after this that it would have come crashing back down to earth. Thank goodness the outcome was what it was. Cal has told me some pretty interesting stories of chopper flights that he has either been on or knew of. I think I will let him tell those stories. Some of the best are listening to him describe how he lands on the heliport at the
Burj Al Arab. Not a job I want......
