Venizelos-Tzimas clash over the "Apache" helicopters

A tough clash is ongoing between Minister of Defense Mr. Evangelos Venizelos and the person responsible for defense matters of the New Democracy party, Mr. Margaritis Tzimas, after an offensive Apache helicopter AH-64D went uo in flames mid-air.

In a statement made at 7am on Tuesday, Mr Tzimas notes that “it is the second accident within a year, since the helicopters were received”, and put a series of questions to Mr. Venizelos.

“Is it true that the helicopters were grounded for months without maintenance? Is it true that our pilots are not trained abroad anymore?... Why did the previous government not receive these helicopters? Was it because they had identified technical deficiencies?.. How did the PASOK government make guarantees when in one year since the helicopters were received, two of them have crashed?”, are just some of the issues on which Mr. Tzimas questions the Defense minister.

Mr. Tzimas’ stance caused the Minister’s reaction, who declared the statement as frivolous and petty.

Admitting that the Ministry of National Defense “is particularly troubled by the fact that two major accidents with helicopters of this type have occurred”, Mr. Venizelos noted that “this helicopter was received by the New Democracy government on August 2009, with guarantees which are valid until August 2011.

The Minister of National Defense informed that Standing Committee on Foreign Matters and Defense and the Special Standing Committee on Defense and Armaments Procurement on yesterday’s incident involving the Apache helicopter, which was destroyed by fire and managed to land only because of the cool and successful manoeuvres of the pilot and co-pilot, who escaped unharmed.

According to what Mr. Venizelos stated: “This helicopter came to Greece in 2007 and was formally received by the Greek army on August 18th, 2009 and thus is still under warranty of two years or 480 flight hours from the date of the signing of the final protocol and quality reception (18 August 2011 for this helicopter).

Until yesterday, the helicopter had completed 241 hours of flight prior to the accident, while it was inspected on Thursday, April 28th, 2011. The commander, a Colonel of the Army and an Air Force Commander, has a flight experience of 1476 total flight hours, of which 840 are on helicopters of the same type.

And Mr. Tzimas argues that the explosion in the Apache mid-air, “once again made our country an international laughing stock, and it is quite interesting that the leadership of the Defense Ministry admits that they are concerned by the fact that two major accidents occurred with Apache AH-64D helicopters.