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| MoD helicopter crashes in sea
during sonar tests
BY KIRSTY SCOTT Guardian, 28.10.2000 |
Other military news stories | ||
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The Ministry of Defence was forced to defend its latest helicopter yesterday after one crash-landed in the sea off Skye during tests off the west coast of Scotland and split apart on impact. All five crew were rescued. It is the latest in a series of accidents involving the £30m Merlin helicopter, which is replacing the Sea King. An hour later an RAF Jaguar fighter bomber crashed near Lockerbie after hitting a flock of birds. The pilot ejected unhurt. A spokesman for the MoD said the two accidents, in which more than £50m worth of equipment was lost, were unrelated to a maritime exercise taking place off Scotland. The crew of the Merlin put out a Mayday call at 9.51am shortly before ditching between Skye and the mainland. A fishing boat was first on the scene, and four of the crew were taken to hospital on Skye for tests. The pilot was airlifted to Stornoway with back injuries. The crew, from the 700 M Initial Flying Trials Unit based at RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall, had been testing sonar equipment. Salvage efforts were underway last night for the helicopter, which broke in two but stayed afloat, upside down. Michael Mulford, a spokesman for the RAF Rescue Centre at Kinloss, said: "They were between two bits of land, two or three miles each way. "They would not take action like that - putting down in the sea - without very good and immediate reason." The MoD has ordered 58 Merlins, the first six due to become operational next June. They are being built in Britain by GKN Westland and in Italy by Agusta under a £4.5bn collaborative programme. Merlin's main roles are in ship and submarine warfare, tracking and surveillance, and search and rescue. It is designed to fly in severe weather and over high seas with the aid of sonar equipment and radar altimeters. But the programme has been dogged by controversy. The national audit office criticised it for being £1bn over budget and late getting machines into service, and there have been several accidents on test flights. In 1993 a prototype crashed in Italy, killing four people, and in 1995 another crashed in Somerset. The crew survived. In July a 3ft panel fell from a Merlin on to a beach in Worthing, West Sussex. Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, called for a full investigation. An MoD spokesman said there was no evidence yesterday's crash would affect the Merlin project. |
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(c) 2000 |