Canada's Sea King helicopters have just been temporarily grounded. The Air Force news release calls it an "operational pause" following two recent incidents where aircraft experienced a "temporary loss of power while hovering". It seems like just a few days ago I was bitching at the way there was money to spend on new jets for senior government officials but nothing available to replace helicopters that should have been grounded long ago. (That's because it was just a few days ago - scroll down. I haven't figured permalinks out yet.)
I'm not a military buff, but I have a real problem with asking young men and women to serve this country and then providing them with equipment that's likely to kill them. While we apparently have the money for new armoured vehicles ten years ahead of schedule, we still can't deal with a problem we've known about for years.
Canada's geriatric fleet of 28 Sea Kings is plagued by parts shortages and frequent mechanical breakdowns that keep them in the shop 30 hours for every one hour of flight. Over the years, there have been four fatal crashes that killed 10 people.Morons.
