Helicopter Carrying 18 Ditched Two Nautical Miles Offshore

A CHC Helicopter AS332L2 aircraft landed in the water Friday about two nautical miles west of Sumburgh, on Shetland Island in the U.K. The company said in a statement on its website that the helicopter had traveled from Aberdeen to two North Sea oil-and-gas rigs before returning to Sumburgh. The aircraft was on approach to Sumburgh Airport at about 6:20 p.m. local time when contact was lost with air traffic control.

The aircraft was carrying 16 passengers and a crew of two. Four were said to be fatally injured in the accident, and one of those was still missing Monday. CHC said in the release that the cause of the accident is not yet known and a full investigation is being carried out in conjunction with the U.K. Air Accident Investigation Branch. "CHC (is) diligently working to help people involved in the accident and to understand and meet the needs of our customers," the company said. 
 
"We believe that engineering and operating differences associated with AS332L/L1 and EC225 aircraft warrant continuing flights with those aircraft.  Nonetheless, we canceled all of our Sunday (Aug. 25) flights on those aircraft types (except for those involved in life-saving search-and-rescue and medevac missions) in order to give us time to take stock of any implications associated with Friday’s accident, which involved an AS332L2 aircraft."

CHC planned to resume normal operations on Monday with AS332L/L1 and EC225 aircraft.  "We will continue to hold all flights worldwide involving AS332L2 aircraft, except for those involved in life-saving SAR and medevac missions," the statement said. "In the U.K., consistent with a request by the Helicopter Safety Steering Group and until further notice, we will not fly AS332Ls/L1s/L2s and EC225s, except for life-saving SAR and medevac missions."

The BBC reported Monday that a rescue official said that the aircraft was in an "inaccessible" area, and that the weather was hampering the search for the person still missing. The father of one of the people on board the aircraft said that it was his understanding that the aircraft "suddenly lost power" and went down. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has sent a team to the accident site.

(AS332 image from file. Not accident aircraft)

FMI: www.aaib.gov.uk