§ Mr. Martin BellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress is being made in fitting flight data recorders to Lynx, Puma and Sea King helicopters. [130472]
§ Dr. MoonieBoth the Royal Navy and Army Lynx aircraft are to undergo major upgrades: for the Royal Navy aircraft this will be through the Mark 8 Enhancement package, and for the Army aircraft through the Future Lynx programme. In both of these programmes, the aircraft will be fitted with a Health and Usage Monitoring System which includes Cockpit Voice and Flight Data Recorders (CVFDR). Work has been taking place to assess how to fit the equipment to the aircraft, and we aim to place a contract in the spring of 2001.
A proposal to fit CVFDRs to our Sea King and Puma fleets is under consideration.