Helicopter ditches in North Sea

A Eurocopter EC-225 Super Puma helicopter, operated by Bond Offshore Helicopters, ditched in the North Sea, only 500 yards from its destination oil rig this evening.

Although sea conditions were reported as 'moderate', the cloud base was said to be below the helicopter platform on the rig on which it was intending to land.

All 16 passengers and two crew were reported as safe.

The aircraft itself (registration G-REDU, construction number 2690) was relatively new, having been deliveredon 23 May 2008.

Wasn't there a similar incident where Super Puma ditched in the North Sea a few years ago? I remember watching an Aircraft Investigation or similar program on it.

Chaz said:

Wasn't there a similar incident where Super Puma ditched in the North Sea a few years ago? I remember watching an Aircraft Investigation or similar program on it.

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Air Crash Investigation - love that show! The episode you are thinking of was 'Helicopter Down' about Bristow Helicopters' Flight 56C. Two other Eurocopter Super Pumas have ditched into the North Sea. One was Bristow's Search & Rescue helicopter based in the Netherlands in 2006 where the life rafts failed to automatically inflate, with another Super Puma also ditching into the North Sea last month.

Is this a new trend now or something, first its a 737 or whatever it was in the Hudson, now its a helicopter !

At least everyone was ok, even if a lil wet.

Won't be too long till SkyNews hires an armchair investigator to dish out some random nonsense. The AAIB should publish something on their website in due course.

LilLoaf said:

Is this a new trend now or something, first its a 737 or whatever it was in the Hudson, now its a helicopter !

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Yes it's a new trend, see how well modes of flight skim along the water :roll:.

If it's a choice between crashing into the platform or ditching close by, the pilot is always going to take the ditching option. It's the safest method of setting down the aircraft and poses the least risk to all the occupants. Ideally you want to be close to the rig to enable a swift rescue.

This doesn't mean there's necessarily anything wrong with the Super Puma. Any helicopter type being used for transport to and from an offshore rig is going to suffer a higher than average loss rate because of the extreme nature of the conditions in which they fly and the environment they operate in. If they flew these kinds of missions over land the pilot would just set the thing down in a convenient field. Unfortunately if the aircraft can't get up on the platform for whatever reason, there really isn't anywhere else to land because the platform is likely to be the only solid object for hundreds of miles in any given direction, so you get more ditchings.

It really isn't a biggie.

O L Leigh

Your well reasoned and informed reply would be of no interest to the media at large of course! They're looking for a major scandal!

LilLoaf said:

Is this a new trend now or something, first its a 737 or whatever it was in the Hudson, now its a helicopter !

At least everyone was ok, even if a lil wet.

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Airbus A320.

Did anyone else see that program on Channel 4 last night about the A320 in the Hudson? Was rather interesting. I was also flicking between Five's program about fotball hooliganism.

Damn, I missed that. I guess there's going to be a proper documentary 'seconds from disaster' done soon - although it may be hard to pad out for an hour. Plane takes off, hits birds, lands! That's only a few seconds in itself!

I wonder why Airbus didn't make more of a song and dance about it's ability to land on water without breaking up. Is it because they have a policy not to say anything ever, thus not being accused of NOT speaking when a plane does crash and nobody survives?

The only reason it didn't break up was because Capt. Sullenburger brought it into land at exactly 11 degees. Any steeper and the plane would hit too hard, breaking up. Any less steep, and the engines would have hit first, causing rapid deceleration and braking the plane up.

Simply put, the plane isn't designed to land like that and stay in one piece and it is only because of the skills of the pilot that it did.

I learnt that last night