Helicopter plunges into North Sea, 16 feared dead

All on board are feared dead after a Super Puma helicopter, similar to the one pictured, crashed into the North Sea. Photo / AP

Up to 16 passengers and crew are feared dead after a helicopter bringing BP oil workers back to shore crashed in near perfect conditions in the North Sea yesterday afternoon.

Aberdeen Coastguard, assisted by two RAF helicopters and a Nimrod airplane, spotted two overturned life rafts close to where the chopper went down in bitterly cold waters about 20kms off the Scottish coast. Rescue workers were last night engaged in the grim task of recovering bodies from the sea.

Although all on board were apparently wearing immersion suits which allow them to survive for several hours in cold water, safety experts said it is thought the Super Puma may have crashed at speeds of up to 240km/h making it unlikely anyone was still alive. Because the weather was so good at the time, initial investigations will focus on possible mechanical failure.

It is the second-worst helicopter crash in the history of the North Sea oil industry and comes six weeks after an incident involving a later model of the Super Puma, also carrying BP staff, which resulted in it being grounded and its earlier sister craft deployed.

Oil workers' unions demanded urgent assurances that North Sea helicopter travel was safe n they make up to 50 journeys a day, mainly from Aberdeen, servicing the oil drilling platforms and their support vessels. The latest crash means more than 120 offshore workers and crew have been killed in about 30 separate fatal incidents since 1969.

Jake Molloy, of the RMT, said: "Our thoughts are with the families at this time. It's going to put a great deal of fear into the hearts of offshore workers and their families to have two incidents so soon together." First Minister Alex Salmond, who cancelled a planned trip to the Scotland vs Iceland football match to go to the Grampian Police headquarters in Aberdeen where the operation was being co-ordinated, said reports from the scene were of a "crash not a ditching". He added: "We may be looking at all 16 souls lost."

A statement will be made to the Scottish Parliament on the incident today. The helicopter was being operated on behalf of BP by Bond Offshore and was returning from the Miller oil and gas field, 270kms north-east of Aberdeen.

Unlike the incident in February which took place in dense fog and in which all 18 passengers and crew survived, conditions yesterday were dry with light breezes and good visibility.

An Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) interim report last week said a preliminary examination of the recorded information of the Puma wreckage from the first crash had shown "no evidence of any pre-impact malfunction of any major mechanical components of the helicopter".

The Super Puma involved in yesterday's tragedy, which can carry 19 passengers and two crew members, had just completed 10,000 hours of accident-free service, its owners said.

However, the model has been involved in a number of incidents since it began service in 1978. Britain's worst helicopter disaster happened in 1986 when 45 people died after a Chinook crashed, also off Shetland.

Chris Allen, health, safety, social and environment director of Oil & Gas UK, the trade body which regulates the industry, said: "This is a dark day for our industry."

Referring to a crash last month in which 17 people were killed when a Sikorsky S-9A helicopter carrying oil workers crashed off Newfoundland in Canada, Mr Allen said: "With the recent accident in Canada also on our minds, the industry has experienced two accidents in a short space of time. This is devastating for everyone involved in the oil and gas industry.

"It is really hard to comprehend how this could have happened."

- THE INDEPENDENT