Chopper ditches in the North Sea

Just heard on the news , controlled ditch 25 miles off Aberdeen. No further details as yet.

ROVworld Webteam Joined: Dec 12, 2003

Bond Super Puma helicopter ditches in North Sea off Aberdeen

Passengers and crew from a helicopter which ditched in the North Sea have been flown to hospital.

The incident - about 30 miles east of Aberdeen - involved a Bond EC 225 Super Puma helicopter.

It is understood all 14 people on board made it into a liferaft.

They were picked up and were being flown to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, arriving at about 13:45. Five others were being brought by lifeboat.

The incident, which happened at about 12:15, has been described as a controlled ditching.

The helicopter was heading from Aberdeen to the Maersk Resilient and Ensco 102 drilling rigs when an alert was broadcast.

The response was being co-ordinated by Aberdeen Coastguard.

NHS Grampian said Aberdeen Royal Infirmary's accident and emergency department was expecting up to 14 admissions for assessment.

Helicopter flights out of Aberdeen have been suspended for the time being.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-18020646

ROVworld Webteam Joined: Dec 26, 2003 Location: Scotland

Everyone is now back ashore, the chopper is still floating with a boat standby it, they are arranging its recovery.

Any other week and that could have been me flying out to the 102 to do a spudcan.

3 Super Pumas now crashed in the N Sea, Bond need to sort themselves out.

rayshields wrote:

....

3 Super Pumas now crashed in the N Sea....

Or.... 'Not so super' Pumas

Member Joined: Apr 25, 2012

Blame the oil co suits who push the price down and the first thing to go is maintenance - shame on these people.

donkeyoaty wrote:

Blame the oil co suits who push the price down and the first thing to go is maintenance - shame on these people.

Bit of a sweeping statement by 'donkeyoaty' in which the poster seems to suggest that, due to low contract rates, Bond may have been cutting back on maintenance and therefore that was the reason for the crash!

Not a suggestion I'd want to put my name to. It might be worth noting that there is only a limited amount of anonymity behind a forum username Shocked