Been out for a while now
New NTSB Rule Requires “Immediate Reporting” of Rotor Damage
http://www.rotor.com/rotor/Homenbsp/tabid/510/newsid905/62923/Default.aspx On January 7, 2010, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) published a Final Rule which will become effective on March 8, 2010, and will require “immediate reporting” of certain incidents, including “damage to helicopter tail or main rotor blades, including ground damage, that requires major repair or replacement of the blade(s).”
Unlike an earlier rule proposed by NTSB in December 2004, which could have resulted in rotor ground damage being reclassified as a reportable accident, this new rule does not eliminate ground damage to helicopter rotor blades from the list of exclusions to the definition of what constitutes “substantial damage” in CFR Part 830.2. However, the new rule did add rotor damage, including ground damage, to a list of “incidents” that require immediate notification to an NTSB Regional Office.
Other incidents which have been added to the list of “immediate notification” events that could involve helicopters are:
• “A complete loss of information, excluding flickering, from more than 50 percent of an aircraft’s cockpit displays known as: Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS) displays; Engine Indication and Crew Alerting System (EICAS) displays; Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitor (ECAM) displays; or Other displays of this type, which generally include a primary flight display (PFD), primary navigation display (PND), and other integrated displays.”
• “Airborne Collision and Avoidance System (ACAS) resolution advisories issued either when an aircraft is being operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan and compliance with the advisory is necessary to avert a substantial risk of collision between two or more aircraft or to an aircraft operating in class A airspace.”
• “Any event in which an aircraft operated by an air carrier, lands or departs on a taxiway, incorrect runway, or other area not designed as a runway; or experiences a runway incursion that requires the operator or the crew of another aircraft or vehicle to take immediate corrective action to avoid a collision.”
Conversations with NTSB staff make it clear that, under this initiative, collection of information is more important to the NTSB than “Wreckage Preservation.” The safety agency’s goal is to collect information and develop adequate data bases to identify possible trends involving these designated incidents. It is not anticipated that the “Wreckage Preservation” rules will be applied to the same degree for reportable “incidents” as they are to “accidents” and should not result in delays in repairing, moving, and returning the aircraft to service.
In addition to listing these new reportable incidents, the NTSB rule also amended the existing requirement under §830.5(a)(3) which required immediate reporting of turbine failures to read, “Failure of any internal turbine engine component that results in the escape of debris other than out the exhaust path.”
