And Air 5 was back in service by the following Thursday. Makes me wonder how they were cleared to operate. @Flyron , any thoughts on the return to service process post incident? Seems quick?
Air 5 handles a majority of rescues in the ANF. On average they perform 5-700 rescues throughout LAC in a year, including many pediatric runs from the Antelope Valley. I have worked with them to handle physical rescues and they are solid.
LAC E97 was the ground contact for the LZ for Air 5 and here is the radio traffic from Blue 5 after the “hard landing” https://twitter.com/Resqman/status/1505910004578095108?s=20&t=Lkhz9pS-DW1EF7B4Qe3xSQ
They have more than 1 Super Puma. They are designated AIR 5 when in that configuration.
I believe that ship is one of 3 and it was a total loss.
Yes, indeed you are correct @Ehoss84 . My bad. I probably did not state my question correctly. What I should have said is “how did the program get cleared to go back into service so quickly” rather that they are back in service. I guess what I was hoping Ron would be able to answer is what processes are in place both in-house and via NTSB to allow a program to fly again. I would assume that procedures as well as mechanical issues would be assessed for ALL before letting the birds in the air again. Just wondering if the quick return to the air means that the pilot easily explained that it was human error, or a very clear mechanical failure that would not require a full fleet and procedures evaluation.
There’s a lot of variables at play here, whether the cause was obvious (not an airframe/powerplant failure,) being a “public” aircraft vs private, etc. Short of anything above/egregious, it’s up to the agency. If they feel the risk/problem is mitigated and the program can continue to safely perform the mission, then they fly. Internally, depending on the cause, I’m sure there will be reviews of procedures and LZ approaches and risk vs benefit analysis, the whole nine yards. A healthy program will treat this as a teachable moment, adjust accordingly, and move on.