[Anchor]
The decision to accept older military helicopters instead of new ones, combined with a delivery delay of a year and a half, has created a gap in wildfire response capabilities. You might think this is a problem that will be resolved in a year and a half, but our reporting revealed that the situation is far more complicated. The issue of 'certification,' which is the most critical factor for aviation safety and operations, remains unresolved.
Reporter Lee Hyun-jung takes a closer look.
[Reporter]
Just as a car must meet safety standards before being driven on the road, a helicopter must complete certification before it can fly.
In particular, when a military helicopter is converted for civilian wildfire-fighting purposes, it must go through a separate and rigorous certification process to ensure it can fly safely.
The new helicopters originally proposed by the U.S. manufacturer were models that had already secured certification.
However, as the plan was changed to military-converted aircraft, a new certification process became necessary.
[Choi Yong-hoon / Head of Aviation Certification Division, Korea Institute of Aviation Safety Technology: You can think of certification as the minimum starting point for safety. To receive an airworthiness certificate, the design and manufacturing status must be fully verified, so without receiving that (certification), the aircraft ultimately cannot fly.]
Yet, when the company requested a contract modification from the Korea Forest Service, it omitted this fatal 'certification risk.'
At a Korea Forest Service meeting held in July last year to evaluate the validity of the contract change, when an external committee member asked about the certification outlook, a Korea Forest Service official simply relayed the manufacturer's confident claim that they "plan to receive U.S. Federal Aviation Administration certification in November and complete domestic procedures in December."
[External Committee Member (Professor), Korea Forest Service Review Committee: Both the Korea Forest Service and Columbia (the U.S. company) maintained that they had their own experience and that there would be no problem getting certified. So, as an advisory member, I had my concerns, but.]
However, when our reporting team filed a freedom of information request with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the response came back: "We have never received an application for certification regarding that model."
The certification issue, which should have been wrapped up late last year and can take anywhere from months to several years, remains unresolved.
[Kang Doo-won / Lawyer: When they presented that 'all approvals and certifications from the U.S. FAA can be obtained,' and as a result that was not complied with, that is naturally and fundamentally the fault of the manufacturer.]
The Korea Forest Service failed to even properly grasp whether a certification application had been filed.
Certification is a decisive issue that determines whether a helicopter can fly or not, and it should have been the very first thing verified when changing the contract.
In fact, the Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Government and the Korea National Park Service, which had explored importing helicopters from the same U.S. company around the same time, dropped their projects after concluding that the uncertainty surrounding certification was too high.
The casual handling of the certification issue was also evident during the consultation process among government agencies.
Before modifying the contract, the Korea Forest Service underwent preliminary legal reviews by the Board of Audit and Inspection and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, but it did not bring up the certification issue and instead reportedly explained the contract modification as being due to 'force majeure' reasons.
Following SBS's reporting, the Korea Forest Service stated, "We modified the contract because we judged that there were no alternatives other than converting military helicopters to prevent gaps in wildfire suppression," adding, "We will review plans to secure substitute helicopters in preparation for potential project delays such as certification."
(Photo: Yonhap News) (Video Reporting: Seol Min-hwan, Video Editing: Yoon Tae-ho, Design: Park Tae-young, PD: Kim Do-gyun and Han Seung-ho, XR: JUNHO, VJ: Kim Jun-ho, Video Courtesy of Columbia Helicopters YouTube, YouTube and SNS Sources: Zarasum Yeonggu, Jirisan Sancheongsari, Bicha and Naltle, Film Master)
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