CHC Crash Super Puma Had Maintenance Delayed Twice
A Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority official has confirmed to local media that the helicopter involved in Fridays crash had maintenance servicing delayed twice in 2015.
Hege Aalstad, a senior legal adviser at the authority, said: “I can confirm that this specific helicopter had seen its maintenance delayed. It is correct that there was an application for a so-called travel-time extension.
“The first one was for a delay of 100 flying hours … and the other was also for 100 flying hours.”
The crash marked the first helicopter crash in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea in almost two decades.
Seven years ago this month a similar helicopter, operated by Bond, suffered a catastrophic failure of its gearbox as it flew back to Aberdeen from a North sea platform, killing all 16 on board.
It was one of five serious incidents involving Super Puma aircraft in as many years in the UK sector, claiming a total of 20 lives.
The news comes as the search continued Saturday for the two missing bodies from the crash site.
Police spokesman Per Angel said they also were working on identifying the 11 victims found so far.
The helicopter carrying workers from an offshore rig in the North Sea went down on Turoey, a tiny island outside Bergen, Norway’s second-largest city. Eleven Norwegians, one Briton and one Italian were aboard the aircraft that went down for unknown reasons.
Statoil said the 11 passengers were employed by Houston-based Halliburton Co. and Schlumberger N.V., Norwegian firms Aker Solutions and Karsten Moholt and Danish robotics company Welltec, and Statoil. The two pilots were CHC Helicopter staff. No further details were available.
Following the fatal crash all UK Super Puma helicopters were grounded by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) subject to further investigations.
The CAA said in a statement: “Following the accident the UK CAA has issued an instruction to stop any commercial passenger flights by UK operators flying the Airbus EC225LP helicopter. This mirrors action taken by the Norwegian CAA. The restriction does not apply to search and rescue flights.
“The accident involved a Norwegian helicopter and will therefore be investigated by the Norwegian authorities. We will offer any assistance that we can.”
