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An Indonesian military helicopter has crashed south of the capital Jakarta, killing four people and injuring three, an air force spokesman said on Friday, the second such crash this week.

The Puma H-3306 helicopter had been on a test flight after maintenance when it crashed at a military base in Bogor, West Java, air force spokesman Bambang Soelistyo said by telephone.

On Monday, three people, including a high ranking special forces officer, were killed in a separate crash of a Bolco type helicopter near Cianjur, in West Java.

Indonesia has a poor air safety record for both military and civilian aircraft.

More than 100 people died after a C-130 Hercules military transport plane crashed in East Java last month.

Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono said last month that maintenance should be 20 to 25 percent of the military budget but was below 10 percent due to limited resources.

Now commanders are blaming the SAS for the problems in the Puma fleet including two crashes and four fatalities.

An investigation conducted by a RAF air commodore and an Army Air Corps colonel found that RAF pilots felt compelled to push their helicopters to the limits in order to deal with the operational demands made by the SAS.

Pilots often flew the aircraft close to the ground which prevented attacks from the enemy but also gave the pilots less time to react if something went wrong. The report found that no one wanted to say no to the SAS, resulting in the safety limits of the aircraft being exceeded.

Excerpts from the report which first appeared in the Sunday Times, said that the SAS’s heavy operational demands led to an “appetite for risk-taking” amongst pilots beginning in 2006.

As a result, a crash involving two Pumas in Iraq occurred in April 2007 leaving two servicemen dead and another Puma crash in November of that year left two more personnel dead.

All of the crashes were attributed to human error and the aircraft were on Special Forces missions at the time.

Commanders at the Joint Helicopter Command allegedly ignored warnings that the helicopters were being pushed beyond the limits of safety. The report urged commanders to “reassert” their authority over the use of the Pumas.

Defence sources said that “The RAF and army hierarchy has decided the Puma force is never going to be let out with the special forces again.”

The Puma is nearly 40 years old and faces an uncertain future. While there is a desire to upgrade the aircraft and extend their lives into the 2020s, ministers are considering axing the deal and pushing for the immediate purchase of new medium sized aircraft.

Martin Johnson was sitting in a cubby hole of a room in the south stand here at Old Trafford with a smile of quiet satisfaction on his face and the crest of Ajax football club next to him on the wall. Out on the pitch his England team had not exactly produced the rugby equivalent of the total football purveyed by the Dutch masters of the 1970s, but there had been a couple of classic touches by the man in the No 14 shirt.

 Mark Cueto, a left-sided midfielder in his youth, sees himself as more of a Ryan Giggs than a Johan Cruyff but, on this evidence, England’s right-wing has some party pieces drawn from the same magician’s box as the great Ajax No 14. The first-time flick of the right boot that set up Delon Armitage for his first try just before the hour mark was impressive enough. The instinctive long-range left-footed volley that yielded the full-back’s second score in the final minute was even more eye-catching. Asked whether he had visions of playing for his beloved Manchester United, Cueto replied: “I’d love to. I’m waiting for the phone call, but I’m not going to hold my breath.”

At times on Saturday, the 40,521 crowd were not so much holding their breath as exhaling it in displeasure. There were boos and whistles ringing round the ground midway through the second half when Andy Goode went for a long-range drop goal and then a 40m penalty instead of shipping the ball wide. If nothing else, it was good preparation for the reception England can expect in the foothills of the Andes this coming Saturday when they face the Pumas on Argentine soil in Salta.

As Johnson observed: “We’ll have to be even more disciplined, accurate, tenacious and resilient than we were today because we’ll be in a pretty hostile environment. But that’s good. It’s good for this group. That’s what you want to go through.”

That group – shorn of nine Lions players and several injured personnel, and reduced to 29 with the release prior to departure yesterday of Tom Rees, Ben Foden and Jordan Turner-Hall – performed with markedly more cohesion than they had in defeat against the Barbarians in the non-cap contest at Twickenham seven days previously. For one thing, their midfield defence was tighter, thanks in no small measure to the test-match debutant Tom May. Not that the 30-year-old centre was the new boy who made the biggest impression.

The man-of-the-match honours went to Matt Banahan, who claimed the opening try in the 26th minute, thanks to a deft pass inside from Cueto and an inviting chip ahead by the outstanding Delon Armitage. At 6ft 7in and 18st, the former lock (he moved to the wing at the suggestion of Brian Ashton while a member of the Junior National Academy four years ago) has the wherewithal to give a new dimension to the national senior team.

“There are lots of people who have height and power but they don’t all play on the wing in test matches,” Johnson said. “I told him, ‘We’ll try to find the way to best use you.’ And we did that today. I thought he did very well.”

He did indeed, and Banahan had a special reason to celebrate afterwards, saying: “It’s been great coming here as a Liverpool fan and finishing with a win.”

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Rudolf’ company changed its name to Puma Schuhfabrik Rudolf Dassler in 1948, and became a public company in 1986, listed on the Börse München and Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

The sponsorship of sports stars continued, including:

1948 – In the first football match after World War II, several members of the West German national football team wear Puma boots, including the scorer of West Germany’s first post-war goal, Herbert Burdenski
1952 Summer Olympics – Josy Barthel of Luxembourg won Puma’s first Olympic Gold (1500m) in Helsinki, Finland
1960 Summer Olympics – Puma paid German sprinter Armin Hary money to wear Pumas in the 100 metres final. Hary had worn Adidas before and asked Adi for payment, but Adidas rejected this. Hary won gold in Pumas, but then laced up Adidas for the medals ceremony – to the shock of both Adi and Rudolf. Hary hoped to cash in from both with the trick, but Adi was so outraged he banned the Olympic champion.
1970 FIFA World Cup – Pelé stopped the referee with a last-second request to tie his shoelaces at the opening whistle of a 1970 World Cup finals match and then knelt down to give millions of television viewers a close-up of his Pumas. Pelé was complying with a request by Puma’s representative Hans Henningsen to raise the German sports shoe company’s profile after they gave him $120,000 to wear their boots.
1972 Summer Olympics – Puma provided running shoes for the 400m hurdles champion, John Ake Bua, from Uganda. After Ake Bua was forced out of Uganda by its military government, Puma employed Ake Bua in Germany, and tried to help integrate him and his family in German society, but eventually Ake Bua returned to Uganda.
However, the brothers earlier split led to a divided town. From 1948, the town was really split in two like a sort of mini Berlin. Brand loyalty became paramount for many residents, and there were stores, bakers and bars which were unofficially known as either loyal to Rudolf’s Puma, or to Adolf’s Adidas. The town’s two football clubs were also divided: ASV Herzogenaurach club wore the three stripes, while 1 FC Herzogenaurach had the jumping cat on its footwear. Intermarriage was frowned upon. When handymen came to work at Rudolf’s home, they would wear Adidas shoes on purpose so that when Rudolf would see their footwear, he’d tell them to go to the basement and pick out a pair of Puma shoes, which they could have for free. The two brothers never reconciled, and although both are buried in the same cemetery, they are spaced apart as far as possible.

In May 1989, Rudolf’s sons Armin and Gerd Dassler agreed to sell their 72 percent stake in Puma, to Swiss business Cosa Liebermann SA.

Award-winning actress Salma Hayek and her husband, PPR’s Francois-Henri Pinault sailed aboard PUMA’s il mostro ahead of the start of leg seven of the Volvo Ocean Race, which began from Boston, USA today. One year since christening PUMA’s il mostro in Boston Harbor, Salma Hayek reprised her role as the boat’s godmother when she joined the PUMA Ocean Racing team to wish them well ahead of the 2,550 nautical mile leg across the Atlantic Ocean to Galway, Ireland.

Crowds of thousands lined the dock at Fan Pier, Boston, as family, friends and fans said an emotional goodbye to the PUMA Ocean Racing team. As the seven boat fleet raced a lap of Boston Harbor, hundreds of spectator boats followed the fleet out into thick fog in Broad Sound. As the Volvo Ocean Race fleet turned east into open water and raced out into the Atlantic, PUMA was in third place. The seventh of ten legs, the transatlantic crossing is set to be one of the toughest legs of the 37,000 nautical mile round the world race. Expected to take eight to ten days to complete, the PUMA Ocean Racing team are battling for a podium finish.

Speaking on the dock in Boston this morning, Skipper Ken Read (USA) commented: “We’re delighted to have Salma Hayek and Francois-Henri Pinault aboard il mostro with the PUMA Ocean Racing team today. Salma christened il mostro here in Boston Harbor almost one year ago to the day. It’s great to have our boat’s godmother with us as we leave Boston and I hope she’ll bring us good luck in this leg!”
 
“The Boston stopover has been truly overwhelming. The public support and interest in the Volvo Ocean Race and in particular the PUMA team has been phenomenal. Over the past couple of weeks, we have had so many sailing fans come and visit the race village, as well as so many more new fans being created. The response and energy of the people in this area has been great, and I’m thrilled that PUMA has been a part of that. I can’t thank Joe Fallon, the people of Fan Pier and their volunteers enough for helping make this stopover such a success, as well as all of our PUMA family based here in Boston.”