It would appear that a high hour 2000 (800+ hour) Cameron Sirocco double mounting bracket has fallen to bits (failed) as a result of the failure of the welds on the mounting bracket. The way early brackets were welded up meant that it would have been extremely difficult to see if any cracks or fatigue type failure was occurring. There are some interesting piccies of the incident on Faceache and Youtube.
There are obviously a number of contributing factors to this incident including transporting with the basket rigged however, Cameron Balloons have said that the original bracket as supplied by Bonanno was beefed up by them in 2012 so any double Siroccos manufactured after that date should be OK. For all other double Siroccos you need to get the bracket changed as soon as possible. If you are in any doubt please contact your inspector.
There have been failures in early Stratus burner brackets and there have also been Service Bulletins about frames and transporting burners in the rigged position from both Camerons and Ultramagic so you need to heed need and get it applied as soon as you like. As the brackets have already been modified by Camerons in the past supply and remedy should be reasonably straightforward. Please note that this is not a while-you-wait exercise so if you can it would be better to drop the burner off and collect it later. We can probably lend you something to get you by if you need to fly.
This Service Bulletin will become an Airworthiness Directive for sure. Other centrally gimballed burners are not affected by this SB.
Service Bulletin 24 has been issued and is on the Cameron Balloons Website and can be found here: http://www.cameronballoons.co.uk/uploads/Approved%20Modifications/Support%20Files/Service%20Bulletins%20-%20All%20Types/SB24_0_Signed.pdf.
If you need to chat to Camerons Craig is your man on +44 (0) 117 963 7216 or email: technical@cameronballoons.co.uk. To access the Service Bulletin if all else fails go to their website www.cameronballoons.co.uk.