Royal Canadian Air Force grounded most of its Sikorsky CH-148 fleet due to the cracks found on the tails of rotary wings. It is found that the problem affects 19 out of the 23 helicopters.
The problem surfaced on Nov. 26 when one of the helicopters underwent scheduled maintenance, and the cracks were discovered. Sikorsky believes that some of those CH-148s can be repaired within days.
The Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone is a militarised version of the S-92 helicopter. The aircraft took more than a decade to enter service, and its cost soared from an original budget of $3.2 billion to $5.7 billion.
