The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
More cash given to find cause of copter accident
North Sea: Norwegian government backs inquiry into crash
The Norwegian government has given more cash to help investigators pinpoint the cause of a North Sea helicopter crash which killed 13 people.
A further five million krone (£445,000) has been pledged to the Air Investigation Branch Norway (AIBN) as they try to determine the cause of the accident in April.
There were 11 passengers – including 41-year-old Aberdeenshire man Iain Stuart – on board the doomed flight as well as two crew.
The Super Puma had been on a return journey from Statoil’s Gullfaks B platform to Flesland Airport on April 29 when the crash happened.
The new funding is in addition to cash the AIBN is given on a regular basis by the Norwegian government for investigations.
A spokesman for the AIBN said: “The Norwegian government provides funding as needed for investigations.
“When a major incident happens like this we will ask for more money as needed in addition to the regular budget.”
Earlier this month, Airbus Helicopters said it had no plans to scrap the Super Puma model following the accident.
The aircraft have been grounded for more than two months.
Airbus chief executive, Guilamme Faury, said the helicopter model would “have a future” before adding it was not clear yet whether the cause of the most recent accident had been down to “design, production, maintenance or a combination of the three”.
In June it was revealed the gearbox of the helicopter had previously been involved in a road accident.
Investigators suspect the most likely cause of the tragedy was a fatigue fracture in one of the gears. They have been assessing whether the previous incident – before the gearbox was installed – played a part in the crash. Earlier preliminary reports have also shown “clear similarities” between the incident in April and a crash off Peterhead in 2009 in which 16 people died after a different model of Super Puma crashed.
Both models are manufactured by Airbus Helicopters.
“The Norwegian government provides funding as needed for investigations”