Police Copter Fleet Grounded for Second Time in Four Weeks : Safety: Concerns with maintenance records surfaced in the investigation of a fatal crash last month. The Fire Department also has taken its seven choppers out of service.

The Los Angeles Police Department has grounded its helicopter fleet for the second time in four weeks, citing concerns with aircraft maintenance records that have surfaced in the investigation of a June 13 crash that killed two veteran officers and a bystander.

Alerted by police to potential problems, the city Fire Department also grounded its complement of seven helicopters, Battalion Chief Dean Cathey said Thursday.

The LAPD’s decision Wednesday to ground its Air Support Division’s 10 Bell JetRangers and 5 Aerospatiale AStars came only two days after the Aerospatiales had been judged airworthy and returned to duty.

The French-made aircraft had been grounded since one of the same models carried pilot Gary Howe and fellow officer Charles R. (Randy) Champe to their deaths. A third man, area resident Lino Salguero, was also killed.

The JetRangers were back on duty only two days after the crash.

On Thursday, police spokesman Lt. Fred Nixon said only that the helicopters had been grounded “as a safety precaution.” He declined to cite a specific reason for the abrupt change of the orders concerning the fleet.

“As specific as I’m going to get is that we are continuing our investigation of the tragedy and as part of that investigation we have grounded our fleet temporarily,” Nixon said. “We are trying to be absolutely certain that we have checked out every possible safety issue.”

Officer Rick Loeffler, a member of the Air Support unit based at Piper Center near downtown, was more specific, saying that the helicopters have been determined to be airworthy but were grounded to allow an audit of maintenance records and a review of the methodology involved.

“It’s an administrative thing,” he explained. “It’s a peripheral issue that came out of the (crash) investigation.”

A more uniform method of record-keeping would improve the maintenance books, the officer said.

Nixon said the crash investigation is expected to continue for several weeks and it is not known how long the helicopters will be grounded. In the meantime, he said, the air patrol officers will be assigned to other duties.

Howe reported engine trouble shortly before the helicopter crashed near Vernon and Raymond avenues in Southwest Los Angeles. The radio transmission prompted theories that an engine defect or fuel problem was to blame.

Investigators with the LAPD’s aircraft mishaps investigation team determined that the helicopter fuel contained an insufficient amount of an anti-contaminant additive, but ruled out the fuel mixture as a cause of the aircraft’s failure.

The city purchased six Aerospatiales for $1.8 million in 1989 to join the aging fleet of JetRangers, some of which are approaching 20 years of service, Nixon said. Four JetRangers were recently retired.

“We thought, as a precautionary measure, we would have our birds inspected,” Cathey said of the Fire Department’s decision to ground its fleet. “There isn’t necessarily anything physically wrong.”

The LAPD instituted its helicopter patrol during the 1950s. Shortly after the June 13 crash, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates described the safety record of the unit as unsurpassed.

Police consider the helicopters a valuable asset in fighting crime. Under normal circumstances, the Air Support Division has at least three choppers aloft to assist officers on the ground in surveillance and the pursuit of crime suspects.

“It provides a vantage point that’s superior to any vantage point on the ground,” Nixon said. “It’s a tool taken away until we get the fleet aloft. That’s not to say we won’t police the city effectively. We’ll find ways to do the job.”