HELICOPTER ACCIDENTS ARE THE NUMBER ONE CAUSE
OF WORKER INJURIES: North Sea helicopter
struck by lightning while on its way to oil platform
January
2nd, 2015
A Helicopter had to return to land after it was hit by lightning while on its way to a North Sea oil platform.
The Bond-operated EC225 was carrying 11 passengers and two
crew when the incident happened off the coast of Aberdeen.
A spokesman for the company yesterday confirmed the
helicopter returned to the city’s airport after being struck on Saturday
morning.
They didn’t release details of which rig the chopper was
travelling to.
The helicopter has been taken out of service to allow
engineers to examine it for any damage.
A helicopter travelling to the Brae Alpha oil rig
ditched in the North Sea on January 19, 1995, after it was struck by lightning
that caused severe damage to the tail rotor.
Everyone on board the Bristow flight, which was carrying
16 oil workers from Aberdeen, was rescued.
Air accident investigators also ruled that a lightning
strike was a factor in a North Sea helicopter tragedy off the coast of Norwich
on July 16, 2002.
All nine people on board the Bristow-operated Sikorsky
S-76A died.
Research carried out by the Met Office last year
revealed that helicopters could trigger lightning strikes.
Experts believe this happens when the aircraft acquire a
negative charge during flight and fly close to a positively charged cloud.
The study showed these incidents are usually reported
over the North Sea between October and the end of March.
Pilots involved in past incidents told researchers they
had no prior weather warnings for the area where their helicopters got hit.
This led them to believe that choppers themselves
trigger lightning.
Improvements in aircraft design mean all helicopters are
expected to survive lightning strikes these days, according to Metropolitan's and other industry experts.
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UK: One-third of
UK offshore helicopter fleet grounded
24 Oct 2012
Super Puma EC 225
One-third of the helicopter fleet that transports oil
workers to offshore North Sea fields has been removed from service after an
aircraft ditched in the North Sea, an industry group said
Tuesday. According to figures provided by Oil & Gas UK, which represents all
companies active in the U.K. continental shelf, some 29 of the 86-strong
offshore fleet have been grounded by operators Bond Aviation, CHC Helicopter
and Bristow.
All the grounded aircraft are Eurocopter Super Pumas, either models EC225 or AS332. An aircraft of this type, operated by CHC, ditched Monday south of Shetland on its way to a rig operated on behalf of Total. All 19 people who were aboard the aircraft were rescued, and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch has sent a team to investigate.
Monday's incident has revived fears about the reliability of the Super Pumas, which have now been involved in four separate ditching incidents in four years, including one in April 2009 in which 16 people died. A report published last week by the AAIB into a crash in May this year, involving a Bond Super Puma, concluded that the crew had been given a false warning of system failure. It recommended that Eurocopter, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co, review the design of the main gearbox emergency lubrication system.
All the grounded aircraft are Eurocopter Super Pumas, either models EC225 or AS332. An aircraft of this type, operated by CHC, ditched Monday south of Shetland on its way to a rig operated on behalf of Total. All 19 people who were aboard the aircraft were rescued, and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch has sent a team to investigate.
Monday's incident has revived fears about the reliability of the Super Pumas, which have now been involved in four separate ditching incidents in four years, including one in April 2009 in which 16 people died. A report published last week by the AAIB into a crash in May this year, involving a Bond Super Puma, concluded that the crew had been given a false warning of system failure. It recommended that Eurocopter, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co, review the design of the main gearbox emergency lubrication system.