Rooivalk helicopter flies into ground during test
Date: 4 August 2005
The following is a rough translation from an Afrikaans article that appeared in Beeld:
A Rooivalk attack helicopter of 16 Squadron in Bloemfontein flew into the ground during a test flight yesterday - on the day that a report was presented to the Parliamentary defence committee which stated that another R600 million was needed over the next three years for the helicopters development.
According to the airforce, the accident occured when the helicopter was on a routine test flight in the vicinity of the Bloemspruit airforce base. The two crew were not injured, but had undergone a medical checkup as part of standard procedures.
They are full of blue bruises and scrapes, but were able to walk when they were taken to hospital for the checkup.
The helicopter is yesterdays accident was brand new with less than 100 flight hours. The automatic pilot ('outomatiese hangvlug-meganisme') had just been installed and the pilots were on a test flight to test its functionality.
The helicopter was on autopilot when it flew into the ground.
The main rotor was severely damaged and the nose section broke off, but it is not yet known if the helicopter will be written-off.
The report of the defence committee stated that R200 million per year for the following three years was required for the Rooivalk project, as well as a further R40 million annually for operations, of which R10 miilion would be needed to buy missiles.
The report indicated that Rooivalk sales had been hampered by the political nature of arms sales and the lack of sufficient weapons testing.
Twelve helicopters have been delivered to the South African Air Force but weapons and certain test involving advanced night flying and electronic warfare self-protection systems were still being integrated.
The helicopter's development was further retarded with the restructuring of its primary contractor, Denel, and the recruiting of and retaining of skilled personnel staff.
This is the second time that the Rooivalk has been involved in an flight accident. The first time was when one of the helicopters performed an emergency landing outside Pretoria and landed in an Aardvark hole during a test flight. The test flight was performed after the helicopter had been to Denel for maintenance.
