An offshore helicopter landed on the wrong North Sea platform because its pilots were flying by sight alone.

The S92 landed on the Ensco 120 Rig which at the time was part of the Golden Eagle field after misidentifying it as the Buzzard facility’s helideck, which was actually eight miles away.

Both pilots were suspended while helicopter operator Babcock – formerly Bond – carried out an investigation into the incident in August 2014.

It found the pilots had been flying by sight and had not used the aircraft’s navigation systems. Their flight to the Buzzard from Golden Eagle and back to Aberdeen was uneventful.

A report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch just issued today described the commander of the aircraft as “experienced” but said he was “relatively new to the helicopter type”.

Babcock made a series of recommendations to pilots in the wake of the incident to prevent it from happening again.