SE-JME

Information

This helicopter was constructed at Eurocopter’s French Marginane plant in Marseilles in 2000. It was purchased by Euro-Pole AB via the dealer Michael Savbäck AB and was flown to Sweden by Mr Savbäck himself. The aircraft entered service with Mörsil based Polarflyg AB, but the company went bankrupt in 2002. It had, however, been leased to Berguven Aero for a brief period of time in 2001. The helicopter switched operator from Polarflyg to an Idre based company, but soon found its way to the newly established company Jämtlands Aero (not to be confused with the original company with the same name).

The machine was operated by the Järpen based company for a couple of years before Osterman Helicopter opened a cooperation with Jämtlands Aero (2), making Osterman Helicopter responsible for the company’s operational and technical management. The helicopter was still owned by Jämtlands Aero (2), but was often hired by Osterman Helicopter when needed. Osterman was merged with Skyline Helicopter AB in October 2005 and as the fleet was rearranged SE-JME became superfluous.

The aircraft was adopted by HeliNature AB in mid-2006. The helicopter was mainly used for power line inspections and air taxi, as well as some aerial works.

It later returned to Osterman Helicopter's fleet.

Fractured rotor hub
The helicopter was involved in an accident on 28 October 2009. It was performing a commercial air transport in the mountainous area between Helags and Funäsdalen when the pilot heard a loud bang and felt very strong low-frequency vibrations in the helicopter. It was not possible to read the instruments, and parts of the interior fittings had become detached, why the pilot entered an autorotation and landed safely.
The post-landing inspection found a large open crack in the main rotor hub along with several cracks in the tail section and the tail boom.

The Investigation Board has determined that the accident was caused by the fact that the maintenance system for the helicopter model did not detect this type of defect because the time from initiation of the crack to final fracture is shorter than the inspection interval.

The aircraft left Osterman Helicopter's fleet subsequent to the accident, acquired by the service company Ex-Change Parts i Borlänge AB.