In a May 23 earnings call, Bristow Group president and CEO Bill Chiles told investors that Bristow is going to be “safe, careful and deliberate” about returning its grounded Eurocopter EC225 helicopters to service.
Bristow has 12 EC225 Super Pumas that — along with the rest of the North Sea Super Puma fleet — have been grounded since October 2012 following two offshore ditching incidents. In financial results for fiscal year 2013 released on May 22, Bristow reported that its EC225s could return to service in the third quarter of the company’s fiscal year 2014 (the fourth quarter of calendar year 2013), provided that “interim solutions” proposed by Eurocopter are deemed acceptable by airworthiness regulators. Bristow also reported that the “definitive solution” to the EC225’s technical issues will be a redesign of the gear shaft, which could take more than a year to complete (for further details, click here.)
In response to Bristow’s report, Eurocopter emailed the following statement to Vertical: “Eurocopter considers that the EC225 technical problems are now fully understood. Based on the findings of the investigation, Eurocopter is proposing new safety measures to the airworthiness authorities. Eurocopter is confident that, once the safety measures are validated by the airworthiness authorities, the first EC225s can return to full service by the end of June [or middle] of July 2013.”
Despite Eurocopter’s assurances, Chiles reiterated Bristow’s original timeline in the company’s fourth quarter earnings conference call. “The airworthiness regulators need to remove the operating restrictions, and Bristow needs confidence with our passengers, our clients and our stakeholders that the interim modifications will allow us to operate the aircraft safely,” he said.
“Some may not agree with our timeline,” he continued. “I really don’t worry about that because Bristow’s going to be safe, careful and deliberate and will not allow commercial pressure to get in the way. We are not going to fly these aircraft, until we are absolutely sure they’re safe.”
