Canadian-owned chopper crashes in U.K.
Fourteen of 18 on board saved as Vancouver-based firm grounds Super Puma L2 helicopter
Four British passengers have been killed after a Canadian-owned oilrig transport helicopter ditched Friday in the North Sea off the north coast of Scotland.
The crash prompted a massive emergency-response effort — including the diversion of a nearby ferry — that resulted in the rescue of 14 of the 18 people on board, including the two flight crew.
Vancouver-based CHC Helicopter issued a statement late Friday confirming the incident involved one of its Super Puma aircraft, a troubleplagued line of helicopters that has been involved in four previous accidents in the North Sea since 2009. The aircraft in Friday’s crash was an AS332L2 model. Another version of the helicopter, the EC225, had been suspended from use until last month following accidents in May and October 2012 involving gearbox failures and non-fatal ditchings in the North Sea.
“The Maritime Coastguard Helicopter from Sumburgh along with other rescue services promptly responded to the scene, supported by aircraft from the U.K. Royal Air Force and other organizations. We appreciate their rapid and committed efforts at the scene,” CHC noted in its statement. “We do not know the cause of the incident. A full investigation will be carried out in conjunction with the U.K. Air Accident Investigation Branch. As a precaution, we are temporarily suspending all of our Super Puma L2 flights worldwide.”
The four dead have been identified as Duncan Munro, 46, from Bishop Auckland in northeast England; Sarah Darnley, 45, from Elgin, Scotland; 59-year-old Gary McCrossan, from Inverness, Scotland, and George Allison, 57, from Winchester, England.
At a news conference in Aberdeen on Saturday, CHC spokesman Mark Abbey expressed the firm’s “heartfelt sympathies to all those involved in last night’s tragic incident — our crew, our passengers and their families and friends.”
He added, “This comes from everyone at CHC from the top in Vancouver to our staff at the hangar in Aberdeen.”
Abbey also stated that CHC “will not enter into any speculation as to what caused the incident but rest assured a full investigation will be carried out in which we will co-operate fully with all the regulatory bodies and share any learnings with the industry.”
In April 2009, a Super Puma helicopter operated by the British firm Bond Offshore Helicopters went down in the North Sea while ferrying oil-platform workers, killing 16. That accident occurred just weeks after a similar tragedy in Canada in March 2009 in which 17 people died when a Cougar Helicopters aircraft crashed off the coast of Newfoundland while transporting oil-rig workers.