Army grounds Apache fleet again, this time for possible 'rotor pin' problem

February 22, 2000
Web posted at: 7:50 PM EST (0050 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Army said Tuesday it has ordered the inspection of the entire fleet of Apache attack helicopters for possible problems with "rotor pins" before they will be allowed to fly.

While the Army says that the "safety of flight announcement" is not a "grounding," the helicopters will not be flown until the inspections and any required repair is completed. The Apache fleet consists of 743 helicopters

Army Col. Ed Viega told CNN that inspectors will be looking for as many as 110 suspect pins whose specifications do not meet Army criteria. Each Apache has eight of the pins.

The Apaches were grounded twice in November 1999 for mechanical problems also associated with the rotor section of the aircraft.

A November 8 grounding of the entire fleet was ordered due to problems with a part known as the "hangar bearing assembly," and a second grounding was ordered on November 12 because of problems with a clutch assembly in the transmission.

The Army's Apache helicopter earned a good deal of negative attention when the Army attempted to deploy a number of the helicopters from Germany to a base in Albania during the buildup to the air attacks on Yugoslavia.

The deployment turned into an embarrassing fiasco for the Army when it took weeks to move the helicopters across Europe to the Albanian base. Shortly after arriving in Albania, two of the advanced attack helicopters crashed in separate incidents, leaving two soldiers dead in one of the crashes.

New safety concern grounds Army's Apaches again
November 12, 1999

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