Bond Air Services resumes suspended EC135 operations

UK emergency helicopter operator Bond Air Services has resumed flight operations for its EC135 fleet. The company had chosen to suspend all EC135 operations following receipt of a Safety Information Notice from manufacturer Eurocopter, explaining that a crack had been found on an aircraft’s lower rotor hub shaft flange. Mindful of a European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) directive issued in March, which said that ‘if not detected and corrected, [the condition] could lead to further crack propagation, possibly resulting in main rotor hub failure and consequent loss of the helicopter’, Bond Air Services decided to ground their fleet pending investigation. The company spent 34 hours working intensively with Eurocopter programme engineers, and after a thorough analysis Eurocopter gave their unequivocal assurance that the EC135s were safe to fly, providing that visual inspections continued to be carried out prior to flight. Flight operations were resumed on 9 May.