Germany defends performance of crashed Tiger helicopter in Mali

Reuters ^ | July 28, 2017 | Andrea Shalal

[sukhoi-30mki]

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's defense ministry on Thursday defended the performance of its Tiger helicopters as part of a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali amid indications that Wednesday's deadly crash of one of the aircraft was due to technical factors.

Two crew members were killed when one of Germany's four Tiger helicopters crashed in the West African nation's desert north on Wednesday, but there were no signs that it was downed by an attack, German officials said.

It was the first deadly accident involving Germany's Tiger helicopters. Two crew members escaped with minor injuries during an earlier crash in 2013 during a training flight in Bavaria. There was no indication that the two crashes were related.

The Tiger helicopters, which first began flying in Mali earlier this year, required extra maintenance given the high heat and other environmental conditions, but had been completing all tasks required by the United Nations, a ministry spokesman said. He said the helicopters had been performing well.

A team of 15 German military officials was due to arrive in Mali late on Thursday to search for the flight data recorder from the crashed helicopter which went down suddenly with no distress call, according to military officials.

A ministry report submitted to parliament in November showed the total fleet of 27 German Tiger helicopters had a readiness of just 44 percent. But it said the aircraft hit readiness rates of 90 percent during a deployment to Afghanistan for 18 months in 2012 and 2013.

[sukhoi-30mki]

[soycd]

Off course, of course, as always ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P02sUaz8n8k&list=RD2VtlDNA7zZU&index=5

[BradyLS]

Ah. A flying tiger.

[Noamie]

Looks like a do-it-all, do-nothing.

Or a flying camouflage dolphin.