Aviation authorities have grounded Airbus EC225 Super Puma helicopters after the crash of a Canadian aircraft off the coast of Norway Friday. The helicopter, operated by CHC Helicopter, went down a few hundred yards from shore near Bergen. All 11 passengers and two crew died. Witnesses told various news sources that they saw rotor blades separate from the aircraft before it dropped into the ocean and exploded. A rotor blade was recovered on shore about 300 yards from the rest of the wreckage, which was under water. The cockpit voice and flight data recorders have been recovered.
The helicopter was working under contract to Norwegian oil company Statoil but only one of the passengers worked for the firm. The others worked for various oil industry companies that were doing work for Statoil. Norway immediately grounded Super Pumas but other authorities followed suit quickly. “Following the accident, the UK CAA has issued an instruction to stop any commercial passenger flights by UK operators flying the Airbus EC225LP helicopter,” said a spokesman for the British Civil Aviation Authority. This is the second worldwide grounding of the Super Puma. The helicopters were taken out of service to fix gearbox problems in 2012 after the ditching of a CHC aircraft off Scotland.
