The US Army has grounded Bell Helicopter OH-58D Kiowa Warriors at its Fort Rucker training base in Alabama to conduct unspecified “systems checks”. Flight operations are expected to resume within a week, the service said.
Fort Rucker was the scene of an OH-58D crash during a training mission on 14 December 2010. The cause of the incident has not been disclosed.
The army said the grounding order, implemented on 19 October, is not related to any aircraft crashes, but is a pro-active measure to take a “holistic” approach to fixing systems problems in the aircraft. The army has operated the OH-58 fleet for nearly 45 years.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
