Super Puma Flights Resume, Again
Eurocopter Super Puma flights around the North Sea — temporarily suspended after the fatal Aug. 23 crash of an AS332 L2 — have resumed, along with the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA’s) issuance of a statement that authorities “do not believe that the accident was caused by an airworthiness or technical problem.”
The CAA added, “We would not allow a return to service unless we were satisfied that it was safe to do so.”
The flight stoppage came just days after the North Sea fleet of Super Pumas had begun flying again after a 10-month grounding that followed two ditchings in 2012. When flights resumed in early August, authorities had said that a series of corrective actions had been performed to prevent cracking in the main gearbox bevel gear vertical shaft of affected EC225s and AS332s. Those actions restored “an acceptable level of safety” to offshore Super Puma operations, authorities said (
