Super Pumas Conducting SAR Missions Are Exempt From The Ban

Britain's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has banned flights over water by Super Puma EC225s, as well as the older version AS332. The ban exempts helicopters conducting life-saving SAR missions.

A Super Puma went down in the North Sea Monday on a flight from Aberdeen to the West Phoenix drilling rig. Evidence points to a problem with the gearbox emergency lubrication system, according to a report appearing in the Edinburgh Herald Scotland newspaper. A similar issue is indicated in an accident in which another EC225 ditched in the North Sea in May. There were no fatalities associated with either accident.

Eurocopter ordered additional maintenance procedures on the aircraft following the first accident. In a statement, the company said "Following the controlled ditching of an EC225, the investigation team, along with Eurocopter and the operator, have been able to perform an endoscopic inspection of the main gearbox which has identified the failure of the vertical shaft, comparable to the ditching of a Bond helicopter in May 2012.

"In coordination with AAIB (Air Accident Investigation Branch), BEA (the French body responsible for safety investigations into air incidents) and EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency), Eurocopter has implemented additional conservative measures to eliminate the risk of reoccurrence of another controlled water landing caused by the same failure.

"Those measures include an expansion of the scope of gearboxes monitoring and a reduction of the monitoring intervals. Eurocopter is devoting all of its efforts to fully understand the root cause of this failure."

But now the CAA has imposed a ban, saying "This decision reflects the challenging conditions that UK offshore flying presents." They have also issued an airworthiness directive that mandates more frequent checks of the helicopters.

FlightGlobal reports that some operators had been authorized to return their Super Pumas to service Friday, but many of the aircraft that provide transportation of workers to North Sea oil rigs remain grounded.

(EC225 Image from file)

FMI: www.caa.co.uk, www.eurocopter.com