Seven dead as oil rig transport helicopter ditches into East Irish Sea
Drilling platform workers watch in horror as helicopter crashes into Morecambe Bay; search for one missing passenger called off
December 28, 2006
Horrified oil rig workers on a drilling platform in the Irish Sea witnessed an oil company transport helicopter ditching into the water last night, killing all seven aboard. The workers were waiting to be picked up from North Morecambe Gas Platform to be flown back to shore, when the helicopter veered suddenly to the left and crashed.
Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell of Lancashire Constabulary, said that the helicopter had left Blackpool, a seaside resort on the UK's West Coast, at around 6 p.m. and had flown to at least two rigs to transport workers.
It reportedly was making its last call at the drilling platform when it ditched into in Morecambe Bay with two crew and five passengers on board.
Six bodies were recovered from the sea last night within a few hours of the a helicopter crashing more than 20 miles offshore.
Two search helicopters from RAF Valley and RAF Leconfield, two RNLI lifeboats – one of them from Fleetwood and one from Barrow – and at least three oil support vessels were searched valiantly for the one person who remained unaccounted for.
However, the massive air and sea rescue mission has been called off after weather conditions in the Irish Sea worsened with gales forecast. The conditions were also hampering the recovery of the helicopter’s black box recorder. It might yield clues about what happened.
The missing man was identified as Keith Smith from Stockton-on-Tees, England.
Meanwhile, witnesses on the drilling rig were being brought back to the mainland to be interviewed as investigators attempted to establish the cause of the crash.
A full probe is being carried out by the Department of Transport’s Air Accident Investigations Branch. Pieces of the aircraft, known in Europe as a Dauphine. were being brought back to shore where they will be examined.
But Flight International magazine’s safety editor David Learmount says the evidence points to a rotor problem.
“It could have had trouble with its tail rotor. There are other reasons but that is the most likely one. Something went wrong suddenly. We do not know what it was. It must have taken the pilots by surprise because they did not have time to make a call,” Learmount said.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Lancashire Constabulary began coordinating the search shortly after 6.40 p.m. after Liverpool Coastguard received a distress call from the rig support vessel Highland Sprite working in a gas field in the East Irish Sea.
The vessel reported a helicopter ditching in the sea near one of the rigs, about 22 miles directly out from Fleetwood on the Fylde Coast. Conditions at sea were very cold, but not very foggy at the time of the crash, according to local weather reports.
A short time after the alarm was raised CHC Helicopter Corporation – European Operations, which has a base in Aberdeen, confirmed that an incident involving one of its Eurocopter AS365N type aircraft had occurred near a platform in the East Irish Sea.
Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, also confirmed that the aircraft was carrying its workers.
Tributes have been paid to the six people who died, who were named as pilots Stephen Potton, 51, from Blackpool, who had worked for CHC Scotia for 20 years, and Simon Foddering, 33, from Preston, England, a former North West Air Ambulance pilot.
Former colleagues at North West Air Ambulance said they were deeply saddened at his death. A spokesperson said: “Their thoughts go out to his family at this very sad time.”
The passengers, all UK residents, were Robert Warburton, 60, a married man from Heysham, Leslie Ahmed, 48, from South Shields, John Shaw, 51, a married man from Kirkcaldy, Fife, and Alfred Neasham, 57, from Durham.
Missing Keith Smith, was from Stockton-on-Tees.
Rig worker Ahmed had cut short his duties to return home for New Year.
“The presents are still under the tree, waiting for opening when he arrived home," his mother-in-law said.
Tom Collins, of Barrow RNLI, said RAF helicopters involved reported seeing debris near the crash scene, suggesting that the helicopter had crashed rather than carried out a controlled landing.
Michael Mulford, a spokesman for the RAF Rescue and Co-ordination Centre at RAF Kinloss, Moray, said a signal from a distress beacon onboard the helicopter was received at 6.39 p.m.
"It is bound to be very cold in the water at this point," Mulford said. "What we don't know is whether this was a controlled landing or a crash. These two things are different. We don't know whether they were confronted by some sudden emergency but managed to make a controlled landing or whether for some reason they couldn't and didn't. That can make a difference to what we can find at the end of the day."
Mulford said the location of the distress beacon had been established.
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