Crash after crash into North Sea
1992 Ten oilmen and the co-pilot died when a Super Puma crashed into the North Sea less than two minutes after take-off to ferry men from Shell’s Cormorant Alpha rig to an accommodation barge nearby. Six survived.
A fatal accident inquiry blamed the pilot for failing to maintain his height and speed after being momentarily distracted. FEBRUARY 2009 A Super Puma EC225 came down 125 miles east of Aberdeen. All 18 people on board were rescued. APRIL 2009 All 16 people on board died when a Bond-operated Eurocopter AS332L2 Super Puma Mk 2 crashed 11 miles off Peterhead due to catastrophic gearbox failure.
Five years later, inquiry findings blamed failures by Bond Offshore to properly deal with metal particles found in the engine during routine checks which could have averted the crash.
MAY 2012 Emergency services rescued 14 oil-workers and crew after a Super Puma EC225 helicopter ditched 25 miles south-east of Aberdeen.
The Bond-operated aircraft made a “controlled descent” when a low-pressure warning light came on during a flight.
Crew and passengers were rescued from liferafts.
OCTOBER 2012 Nineteen passengers and crew were rescued from the sea after a Super Puma EC225 ditched while ferrying workers from Aberdeen to West Phoenix drilling rig off Shetland. Amazingly, everyone survived unscathed. Gearbox failure was again to blame.
AUGUST 2013 Four
people died when a Super Puma L2 crashed into the sea on approach to Shetland’s Sumburgh Airport.
The victims were Duncan Munro, 46, from Bishop Auckland, Sarah Darnley, 45, from Elgin, Gary McCrossan, 59, from Inverness, and George Allison, 57, from Winchester.
The aircraft went down as it was returning from the Borgsten Dolphin platform in the North Sea.
Flight instruments were not adequately monitored by pilots in the minutes before tragedy struck.
2016 All 13 on board died when a Super Puma Airbus EC225LP’s rotor blade detached from the main gearbox, sending it plunging to the water off Norway’s coast.
It emerged the same helicopter had been forced to land days before over fears of a technical problem.
Iain Stuart, 41, from Laurencekirk in Aberdeenshire, who worked for the oil field services company Halliburton, was the only Brit onboard.
The crash led to the grounding of all Super Puma helicopters in the UK and Norway.