Tuesday, September 19, 2000

Fuel sediment grounds CFB Greenwood aircraft

By RICHARD DOOLEY -- The Daily News

Search and rescue aircraft at Canadian Forces Base Greenwood have been grounded after sediment was found in the planes' fuel.

The contamination affects 25 aircraft, including three operational search and rescue Labrador helicopters, CP-140 Aurora long-range patrol aircraft and Hercules transport planes used for search and rescue missions. The grounding order also affects the Arcturus patrol planes

The unidentified contamination was discovered in an aircraft's fuel filter during routine ground maintenance yesterday afternoon.

All planes stationed at 14 Wing Greenwood were immediately grounded until the source of the contamination could be identified.

"The contamination has not affected aircraft safety," said 2nd. Lieut. Nicole MacPhee.

MacPhee said the source of the contamination is under investigation. The prime suspect is the fuel storage tanks at the base.

"We are going to try to have the planes flying as soon as we can," said MacPhee.

In the meantime, search and rescue operations have been shifted to Sea King helicopters at 12 Wing Shearwater and Labrador choppers in Gander, Nfld. The Sea Kings at Shearwater have been put on one hour stand-by.

Last year, military police patrols around the Aurora aircraft were stepped up after cut wires were discovered on two of the patrol planes.

The fleet of planes was also grounded in February when a burnt wiring bundle was discovered in one of the Auroras.

The planes were cleared to fly after an investigation determined there were no widespread problems with the planes.

A Greenwood-based Labrador helicopter crashed in Quebec on Oct. 2, 1998, killing all six crewmembers on board.

All the choppers in the Greenwood search and rescue fleet were grounded for several months afterwards, until an investigation cleared them to fly.

The grounding of the aircraft comes one day after a national search and rescue competition at the base over the weekend. Part of the skills competition involved aircraft maintenance and safety checks.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), September 19, 2000

Answers

oops

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), September 19, 2000.

This is the same problem they had in Australia
late last year. Mobil provided the contaminated
fuel in that one. Also planes fell out of the
sky. :-'

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), September 19, 2000.

I know, Spider. If you remember, I posted articles on that story on the old board for quite a while. Never did see anything about the cause of the Australian fuel contamination, though.

Latest article on Canada's problem at CBC

Wed Sep 20, 12:39 am

Contaminated search and rescue aircraft flying again

Some of Canada's search and rescue aircraft, grounded by contaminated fuel one day ago, are cleared to fly rescue operations Tuesday.

A base spokesperson says all three Labrador search-and-rescue helicopters, all Hercules transport aircraft and at least one CP-140 Aurora Maritime patrol aircraft are operating. These aircraft were refuelled before the dirty fuel problem started.

Yesterday, sediment was found in the gas filters of aircraft based at Canadian Forces Base Greenwood. The problem affected 31 planes and helicopters and happened during a national search-and-rescue exercise.

The source of the contamination is unknown, but authorities carried out tests on Tuesday.

Meanwhile the military says aircraft at other bases can cover in case of emergency. And the air force base is shipping in fuel from other Maritime bases.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), September 20, 2000.