All 19 on ditched helicopter 'safe'

Oct 22 2012

All 19 people on board a helicopter that ditched in the North Sea are safe and well, the coastguard has said.

The CHC helicopter was carrying an oil-change crew from Aberdeen to a rig 86 miles north-west of Shetland when it ditched at around 3.30pm.

Three RNLI lifeboats were launched from Kirkwall in Orkney and Aith and Lerwick in Shetland, and a rescue craft was also sent from the Nord Nightingale vessel which was close to the scene, about 32 miles south-west of Shetland.

Rescue helicopters from the coastguard, RAF Lossiemouth and Bond were also launched and all 19 people were found safe. No one was injured in the ditching and those on board are being taken by helicopter to Kirkwall in Orkney, the coastguard said.

A spokesman for the coastguard said the weather in the area was good: "It has been quite calm today and that has been favourable in terms of getting the rescue crews to the scene quickly."

It is understood the helicopter made a "controlled ditching" into the sea.

A statement from CHC Helicopter said: "We can confirm that there has been an incident involving one of our aircraft in the North Sea, approximately 32 miles south-west of Shetland. Exact details of the incident, which happened at approximately 3.30pm, are not yet known. The appropriate authorities have been informed and the company's incident management team has been mobilised."

In May all 14 passengers and crew members on a Super Puma helicopter were rescued after it ditched about 30 miles off the coast of Aberdeen. It was on a scheduled flight from Aberdeen Airport to a platform in the North Sea at the time.

Earlier 16 people died when a Super Puma plunged into the sea. Its gearbox failed while carrying the men to Aberdeen. The Bond-operated helicopter was returning from the BP Miller platform when it went down off the Aberdeenshire coast on April 1 2009.

This happened about six weeks after another Bond Super Puma with 18 people on board ditched in the North Sea as it approached a production platform owned by BP. Everyone survived that accident.