http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/0,4381,,00.html
Air force grounds Super Pumas
By David Boey
SINGAPORE'S air force has grounded its entire fleet of 28 Super
Puma and Cougar transport helicopters following a crash in
Australia last Tuesday.
This is the first major grounding of the Republic of Singapore Air
Force's Super Puma/Cougar fleet since April 1994, when a Super Puma
crashed during training in Taiwan.
The grounding is a routine precaution while crash investigations
are under way, said the Defence Ministry yesterday.
But it has affected the National Day Parade.
Two Super Puma choppers were to have flown, as flag escorts, on
each side of a CH-47SD Chinook carrying a giant Singapore
flag.
Instead, UH-1H Hueys, the oldest choppers used by the RSAF, took
their place at last Saturday's National Day Parade Preview for
about 60,000 students.
The grounding may also force the parade organisers to use lighting
towers at the National Stadium for television crews to get a high
enough vantage point to capture overhead views of the parade on Aug
9.
'We're looking at using platforms on two of the lighting towers at
the stadium,' said a Mindef spokesman, disclosing the contingency
plan for the parade should the grounding extend beyond National
Day.
Super Pumas are usually used as television platforms because they
can hover in the air, have a roomy cabin and can stay up for long
hours.
The twin-engine Super Pumas were first delivered to the RSAF in
1985. The Cougars are updated models of the French-made Super Pumas
with different engines.
The Mindef spokesman could not say when the grounding would be
lifted.
It came after a Super Puma went down about 50km north of Oakey, in
the Australian state of Queensland. An engine had caught fire while
the helicopter was on a navigation training mission. Its four-man
crew were slightly hurt.
