Video Shows Crashed Super Puma Recovered from Sea Like “Spaghetti”
The Super Puma which crashed into the sea off Norway killing 13 people has been recovered. The shock footage shows the main fuselage mangled and unrecognisable as a helicopter.
The helicopters rotor blades detached in mid air and the helicopters is believed to have hot the water at free fall speed from approx 200 feet.
A Norwegian TV reporter who was at the site of the recovery said:
“There was nothing left of the helicopter. We thought we were going to see the leftovers of a helicopter but there was nothing. There was just torn out pieces, burnt out pieces, it looked like a huge ball of spaghetti, except that it was a four or five tonne, huge thing.”
The salvage operation is continuing but the authorities are advising it is a difficult and complex operation due to the large area over water and land that various pieces of the helicopter have ended up.
The helicopter’s combined “Flight Data Recorder” and “Cockpit Voice Recorder” also known as the blackbox was picked up late Friday night, after having first been located by divers earlier in the day. AIBN plan to bring the Blackbox to the UK where the data will be extracted over the weekend.
The tachograph records a number of technical parameters, such as heading, altitude, speed and speed of the rotor. The cockpit voice recorder, or sound recorder records sound in the cockpit, sound between cockpit and audio between cockpit and cabin. It is not known what condition they were found in but they are designed to withstand aircraft accidents such as this.
