Suing the helicopter manufacturer

General Motors lost a £4.9bn lawsuit way back in 1999, due to a defective fuel system - causing death by flames on a rear-ended vehicle.
 
kendalfox said:
Was there something about a broken pin somewhere
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A friend of mine who is an aviation buff was explaining the findings of the air accident report to me in plain English, apparently there was a pin that fitted through a link somewhere between pilots feet and tail rotor to control yaw(side to side) this pin ran vertically and was flanged (had a head) at one end and a clasp(split pin?) Running horizontally through pin shaft locking pin in position, the clasp(pin?) has come off and the pin then fell out rendering no control to pilot of yaw, if the pin had been fitted with the flange at 12 o'clock position then losing clasp wouldn't of resulted in loss of control but because flanged pin was fitted upside down ( flange at 6 o'clock position) pin was able to drop out. Sueing the manufacturers will at least ensure their negligence won't kill anybody else as this design flaw will be changed
 
Chip kobb said:
A friend of mine who is an aviation buff was explaining the findings of the air accident report to me in plain English, apparently there was a pin that fitted through a link somewhere between pilots feet and tail rotor to control yaw(side to side) this pin ran vertically and was flanged (had a head) at one end and a clasp(split pin?) Running horizontally through pin shaft locking pin in position, the clasp(pin?) has come off and the pin then fell out rendering no control to pilot of yaw, if the pin had been fitted with the flange at 12 o'clock position then losing clasp wouldn't of resulted in loss of control but because flanged pin was fitted upside down ( flange at 6 o'clock position) pin was able to drop out. Sueing the manufacturers will at least ensure their negligence won't kill anybody else as this design flaw will be changed
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Well explained thank you
 
Chip kobb said:
A friend of mine who is an aviation buff was explaining the findings of the air accident report to me in plain English, apparently there was a pin that fitted through a link somewhere between pilots feet and tail rotor to control yaw(side to side) this pin ran vertically and was flanged (had a head) at one end and a clasp(split pin?) Running horizontally through pin shaft locking pin in position, the clasp(pin?) has come off and the pin then fell out rendering no control to pilot of yaw, if the pin had been fitted with the flange at 12 o'clock position then losing clasp wouldn't of resulted in loss of control but because flanged pin was fitted upside down ( flange at 6 o'clock position) pin was able to drop out. Sueing the manufacturers will at least ensure their negligence won't kill anybody else as this design flaw will be changed
Click to expand...
But was it manufacture or maintenance issue?
 
It appeared to be manufacture issue, no doubt they will have changed orientation of pin following recommendations/accident report, If I'm understanding correctly it'll be more a back engineering/product recall update type issue for servicing people from now on. I've not read the article where owners want compo but I suspect vichai's was first( possibly only) to fail.
 
There was a recall amendment bulletin that made a change to the pin/shaft of the rotor. So that in itself would suggest a product defect issue.
 
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