North Sea Chopper Ditch

[bert600]

Looks like Acergy have the contract to go out and recover the helicopter.

Sat diving boat away out of Peterhead to the crash site.

As far as I am aware Acergy haven’t had any go ahead to recover! The Scottish news got it wrong as the Osprey was away to mob up at Invergordon! Not nice for the families to think a boat was away to recover when this was incorrect! The BBC should have got their facts correct before broadcasting what they said!
It should not take this long to organise a recovery operation with the resources available in the North Sea!
My thoughts are with all the victims families!

[Ray Shields]

The P&J explain how it looked like the Osprey was going out to do the recovery:-

Divers were on standby at Peterhead all day yesterday after Acergy offered the use of its Osprey vessel to help with the salvage, but they were not called on.

Also not mentioned here yet was the guy who was killed on the Wellservicer around the same time during trials off Aberdeen.

I wondered why the Welly was still listed as being alongside Aberdeen instead of going out to recover the chopper.

[mind-when-this-was-fields]

bibby topaz is being chartered to do the recovery
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/7982836.stm

[Ray Shields]

Personnel flying with Bristows out to the rig Im on were told yesterday during the pre filight brief in Aberdeen that if anyone did not want to fly – even up to the point they got onboard the chopper at departures – that they could get off and there would be no repercussions from any of the companies.

[Anonymous]

Seven more bodies have been found inside the fuselage of the helicopter that crashed into the North Sea, killing all 16 men on board.

[liddelljohn]

BBC news , all bodies now recovered and the helicopter as well , flight data recorders sent to Air Accident investigation Board.

[Anonymous]

Chopper from N.L. crash failed critical safety test

[Anonymous]

Another North Sea helicopter emergency

[Ray Shields]

Unfortunately every little incident involving helicopters will now make the front page headlines.

[tobs]

When you thought you’d heard it all…Another helicopter problem in the North sea. This time it was the helicopter with the technicians that was going to repair the S92 that landed on the Tor platform that had to turn around because of technical problems. The spokes(wo)man in Bristow Norway did not want to comment what the problem was.

http://www.aftenbladet.no/energi/olje/1012616/Nok_et_Bristow-helikopter_i_troebbel.html (The norwegian article about the incident)

Translation of the article:

– The helicopter that was on the way out to Tor with engineers had to turn around and go back to Sola outside of Stavanger. We had sent out a helicopter with the engineers in, verify operation coordinator Nina Sunde in Bristow to Aftenbladet.no.

She does not want to disclose what the reason for to Sola was.

Earlier Wednesday a Sikorsky-92-helicopter had an emergency landing on Tor platform. This comes just after all Sikorsky helicopters on the Norwegian continental shelf was put on the ground due to an accident in Newfoundland.

[Mag50]

hello,

guys, im going to work in the north seas very soon. I dont like this chopper shi$% going down. Im feeling its is better to go to Nigeria

[Ray Shields]

hello,

guys, im going to work in the north seas very soon. I dont like this chopper shi$% going down. Im feeling its is better to go to Nigeria

That is the fault of teh media, not the choppers.

There are HUNDREDS of chopper flights every day 7 days a week, there are occasional technical problems which are not show stoppers or life threatening which happen on occasion – but these normally don’t make the news.

The safety record for choppers has been very good – you see how many planes crash, would you now not fly on planes? How many car crashes are there every day with people killed – but we still drive our cars.

All that is happening after this unfortunate event is that the media are frightening the families and kids of the people who work offshore.

The first crash, out at ETAP, now appears more likely to be pilot error due to weather conditions, not a defect of the aircraft.

If you go to Nigeria you have larger odds of being kidnapped/killed/getting malaria than you do being on a chopper in the North Sea that crashes.

Life is never safe, but some places are safer than others.

[Ray Shields]

Initial report is now out on the recent Bond helicopter crash.

It appears to have been a "catastrophic failure of the gearbox". Tho as to the reason, they do not know.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7994305.stm

[rovpilot]

The safety record for choppers has been very good – you see how many planes crash, would you now not fly on planes? How many car crashes are there every day with people killed – but we still drive our cars.

Choppers are very safe. In fact in some countries there are even no restrictions on how high of low you can fly with them-compared to fixed wing. In the hands of a skilled pilot, if an engine failure occurs there is no reason at all why he/she cannot make a safe landing. A pilot in Los Angeles even managed to land on a skyscraper helipad after his engine failed-that’s skill!

Check the AAIB report for the ETAP crash http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources/S3-2009%20G-REDU.pdf

1000ft/min ROD maintained with IAS dropping to 0kts is breeding ground for ‘settling with power/vortex ring’…

[Ray Shields]

Interesting read.

From reading this it would appear that what the pilot though was the helideck lights was most likely a reflection of lights from the rig on the water.

The radio altimeter 300ft alarm had been suspended by the crew, but the 100ft voice alarm should have gone off but didn’t (and this is an alarm that the crew cannot suspend). That, plus the Caution blip indicated earlier in the flight for a second looks like the radio altimeter system failed.

At least they have now changed procedure in the case of landings in poor visibility.

[Author]

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