King of the Sea

[tvordlj]

Actually King of the Air... canada's military has been flying Sea King Helicopters for 40 years. The same ones, mind you. They are pieces of crap. They spend 30 hours service for every hour in the sky, they have crashed and killed up to 7 good people. The Canadian government was going to contract to have new ones over 10 years ago to be delivered by 2000. But Jean cretien, our "esteemed" leader, bottled out of the contract. Too expensive he says. It cost 500 million to get out of the contract. So how does that add up i'd like to know. In the mean time, these copters are breaking down all the time even if they aren't crashing. These choppers mainly go out to sea and fly on and off the decks of the ships but also do search and rescue too.

Yesterday or the day before another one crashed onto the deck of the Iroquois which had left Halifax a couple of days ago en route to the Persian Gulf. Nobody was killed. Two were injured. apparently they were lifting off for a systems check. It got 30 feet in the air or so and the engines cut out and down it came again. They're bringing the ship back to Halifax to asses the damage to it and then sending it out again.

It's discraceful. It's appalling and highly embarassing that we are giving our armed forces equipment like this to go to war with!! Bringing the ship back? They are probably hoping to salvage the SeaKing for parts for the other ones. I think the following scenario works much better:

Sailor... hey look guys, big shark off the port side!!! (points)
Everyone looks
Sailor and a mate nonchalantly backwards-kick the SeaKing off the starboard side into the drink while whistling Anchors Away.

I wonder if Jean Cretien had the guts to go up in a Sea King for an hour's ride? Too dangerous? Maybe that's why he's just spent a million or more on a cadillac helicopter for himself.

Pah!

Comments

[browncoweyes.livejournal.com]

My hubby is a Sea King technician on the ships. I'm pretty much of the same opinion as you are...however despite all the maintanance work he's put into those things...he still maintains that they are safe and would and has flown in them. It's like any aircraft the more you fly them...the greater chance of an incident. And the jumbo jets have a pretty high service to flying time ratio as well. BUT..as a worried wife...and a mom of two boys who love their dad.... I would love to have them replaced...and soon.

Re:

[tvor.livejournal.com]

I'm certainly not casting aspersions on the men and women that fly or maintain them, i'm sure you realize that. They are so old though that they need huge amounts of maintenance and even if they are safe, it doesn't take much for them to land on a warning or have a lot of problems.

Re:

[browncoweyes.livejournal.com]

Yep...I know that..and that's not how it was taken.

Re:

[tvor.livejournal.com]

i knew that :)

[canislupus1.livejournal.com]

Hey, I hear that the U.S. had choppers for sale. Wanna buy some? Actually the maintenance to flight time on even new helicopters run around 25 to one. The safety regulations on all things flying militarily are extremely high.