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The danger of inviting the British Armed Forces to display there 'war toys' at public venues was graphically illustrated when the door fell of an RAF Merlin helicopter at the annual Galway Air Show on Sunday (24/06/07). Three people were taken to hospital after incident which happened in the early evening as the Merlin helicopter took off to return to the UK.
There is graphic footage of the incident at:
What is disturbing about the latest incident is that the Merlin is one of the newer helicopters used by the British Armed forces which has had safety problems with its helicopters for many years.
In November 1996 the Ministry of Defence (MoD) told the Celtic League (D/Sec(AS)/58/1 - I November 1996):
"The security of helicopter doors has historically proven a difficult technical area as the majority of doors are designed so that they can be jettisoned to allow rapid egress for flight crew or passengers." The Mod went on to assure that helicopter door security mechanisms were subject to "rigorous inspections"
Despite the MoD assurances several military aircrew have died as a result of accidents involving faulty helicopter doors. In May 1989 a Lynx helicopter crashed after a door detached - all nine crew and passengers died. Meanwhile in October 1996 a air-loader on a Chinook helicopter died when he fell from an inadequately secured door over the Castlemartin exercise range in Wales.
Its unclear how many incidents which did not involve fatalities or injury have occurred as for the last fifteen years UK military air accident statistics have been gerrymandered so that details of so called 'less serious' events are not routinely published.
In the circumstances spectators at the Galway Air Show had a narrow escape. It is also clear that the security of doors on military helicopters are still proving to be a "difficult technical area".
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
25/06/07
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