An Awesome Bird .
Super - Puma . Sound tough ?
You bet . I saw a program the day I got home from Hospital and it caught my fancy so that for that time at least No Pain ! It was about this " Super - Puma " used in the North sea by Aberdeen Air Services to the Offshore platforms .
Seems the weather turned bad on the flight out and about four miles from the platform they were headed to they got hit by lightning ! Not a little strike either . About 60 thousand volts .
Well , seems that burst hit a lightning tag on the tail rotor . ran fine for about two minutes and then Wham ! ! no tail rotor ! I'll explain .They were able to set down on the floats and get out . All fourteen souls .
When the aircrew checked the bird they saw the tail rotor hanging by two hydraulic lines only ! Everything else inside was gone ! Blades broken and missing etc . Needless to say , thanks to another " Puma " just loading ( he had everyone get out ) he went and found the raft and hovered while giving positions to the rescue ship .
Got the Bird up during a later lull in the weather . Found out the tags were built in such a way , when hit they blasted the Composite ( Carbon Fibre and Fibreglas ) blades to smithereens . They fixed everything . I have one and I am going to do an Aberdeen Air Services Bird here . Yup , the Big one ! T.B.