The Japan Transport Safety Board said Friday an investigation of an ambulance helicopter that fatally crashed last month has found that a key component controlling the aircraft's body had been broken.
Based on the finding, the transport ministry the same day urged owners of helicopters of the same type to check the component called control rod for any abnormalities. The control rod is in the tail rotor section of a helicopter.
Subject to the inspection are 85 helicopters from the EC135 series manufactured by Airbus Helicopters. The ministry called for the control rod to be replaced if problems are found.
On April 6, the ambulance helicopter crashed off the city of Iki in Nagasaki Prefecture in the Kyushu region while heading for a hospital in the city of Fukuoka, the capital of the namesake prefecture in the same region, after departing from an airport in Nagasaki.
Of the six people on board, three, including a female patient, 86, and a 34-year-old male doctor, died in the accident. The helicopter was operated by SGC Saga Aviation, based in the city of Saga, the capital of Saga Prefecture in Kyushu.
A regional branch of the Japan Coast Guard is investigating the crash for possible professional negligence resulting in death and injury.
In December 2007, a helicopter of the same type owned by NHK crashed in the central Japan city of Shizuoka, killing its pilot. The control rod in the aircraft was later found to have been broken. Following the accident, steel control rods started to be used in place of aluminum ones.
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