Britons injured as copter crashes on £25m superyacht
A BRITON is fighting for his life after a helicopter plunged into a Norwegian fjord as it tried to land on a £25million superyacht.
Two other Britons on board were hurt in the crash, which it is suspected happened when a loose tarpaulin swirled up in the wind and tangled with the rotor blades.
The helicopter spun round for a few seconds before flipping upside down and crashing into the water near Bergen.
Lifeboats plucked the three Britons from the fjord. The pilot had activated the helicopter’s emergency floating pontoons, preventing the aircraft from sinking and allowing the emergency boats that came to the rescue to pull them out of the water.
Paramedics gave one man CPR on board the rescue boat as it sped back to shore. A 57-year-old man remained critical in hospital in Bergen last night.
The other two, the pilot Quentin Smith, 52, and a 62-year-old man, have been discharged.
The accident happened at sunset on Wednesday as the helicopter was trying to land on the sun deck of the 196ft luxury yacht Bacarella. The sun deck also serves as a helicopter deck, and has fold-down railings to allow a landing.
Kara Lynsdale, 30, from London, was on board a tall ship in Bergen harbour with her parents when she saw the crash.
‘We looked to our left and saw this helicopter just fall into the sea,’ she said. ‘I saw it when it was quite low – it didn’t seem to fall from a great height or anything. I saw it while it was about in line with the boat.’ She said it was not clear if the people on board escaped from the helicopter themselves or were pulled from it by rescuers.
Pilot Mr Smith, who is nicknamed Captain Q, started flying with his father aged five and is listed by Guinness World Records as the first person to fly to both the North and South Poles by helicopter. He also is a two-time Helicopter Aerobatics World Champion and he has circumnavigated the world twice.
Bergen resident Jan Haughland, 48, said he believed the Bacarella had arrived at least three days before the incident. ‘It’s a popular place to visit for the very, very rich,’ Mr Haughland added.
The Bacarella, which is registered in the Cayman Islands, was reported to have refuelled at Sumburgh airport, Shetland, on the way to Norway. The helicopter also refuelled at Sumburgh after arriving from Kirkwall, Orkney, earlier on Wednesday.
Norwegian police said initial investigations indicated that the likely cause was a loose tarpaulin that hit one of the rotor blades.