RNoAF Aerobatic Team Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 A chc owned EC225 super puma helicopter has crashed just outside Bergen, Norway. No survivors has been found. Ther was a total of 13 people on board. The helicopter was on it's way from Gullfaks B platform to Flesland Norway when it crashed. My thoughts goes out to the crew and passengers of the helicopter. Vg.no Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan B Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 Oh not another, every offshore worker's family's worst nightmare. My heart goes out to all involved. Duncan B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 I've been following this on the news for the past 40mins or so. I've seen mixed snippets on survivors, but haven't seen a confirmed "no survivors" report personally. As such, I'm keeping my fingers firmly crossed for those folks. Edit: Police apparently now reporting that there were no survivors. What an awful day for all affected directly or indirectly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNoAF Aerobatic Team Posted April 29, 2016 Author Share Posted April 29, 2016 Eye witnesses reporting that the rotor separated from the airframe and plunged within a time frame of 8 seconds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 I've just seen that too. With regards to rotor separation there's an obvious link to G-REDL - but before anyone jumps to that conclusion I'll point out that G-REDL was an AS332 L2, not an EC225 and that the main gearboxes are not the same. That's assuming today's accident affects an EC225 and not just a misidentified "Super Puma" family member. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNoAF Aerobatic Team Posted April 29, 2016 Author Share Posted April 29, 2016 Of the 13 aboard there was 11 Norwegians , one British and one Italian citizen. 11 now confirmed dead. Registration was LN-OJF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B (Sc) Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 I've just seen that too. With regards to rotor separation there's an obvious link to G-REDL - but before anyone jumps to that conclusion I'll point out that G-REDL was an AS332 L2, not an EC225 and that the main gearboxes are not the same. That's assuming today's accident affects an EC225 and not just a misidentified "Super Puma" family member. Thanks James. Despite that, there must be significant design philosophy similarities in the main gearbox design at least. Dreadful news and very puzzling. As Duncan said, every offshore worker's worst nightmare. John B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 Hi John, yes in so much as they're both epicyclic gearboxes with several stages of reduction to step down from the engines' free turbine driven input shafts down to main rotor RPM, but that design philosophy is pretty much used by all modern multi-engine turboshaft helicopters. It won't take too long for the Norwegian investigators and Eurocopter engineering team long to identify what failed. Why it failed is a whole different matter and that will take the time. At the moment we don't know for sure whether the whole rotorhead detached at all, and if it did because of a catastrophic gearbox failure or because of imbalance due to loss of a single blade. Even if it was a gearbox failure, that may have been caused by other initiators and not necessarily the same fractured gearset as G-REDL. E.g. the Sikorsky S-92 which crashed off the east coast of Canada due to gearbox failure, in turn caused by loss of gearbox oil. The point I'm getting at really is that helicopters are complex beasties and ultimately all efforts to add redundancy are limited by the fundamental need to spin a big set of blades and their control linkages about a single shaft which is both held in place and twisted round by a single gearbox. I don't think it's helpful to assume too much from our armchairs at present. The engineers who will be attending the site and will see the wreckage as soon as the fires are out and/or it's fished out of the water will have a pretty good idea by tomorrow what happened in terms of what big bits departed the aircraft before the impact with the ground, and will know where to look. Since EC225s are in heavy use on both sides of the North Sea, they will very soon know whether they can allow the rest of the fleet to fly or whether to ground them all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNoAF Aerobatic Team Posted April 29, 2016 Author Share Posted April 29, 2016 The rotor has been located 2-300m away from the main crash site. Search has been cancelled. 11 people are dead and two still missing presumed dead. A tragedy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNoAF Aerobatic Team Posted April 29, 2016 Author Share Posted April 29, 2016 The black boxes from the helicopter have been located. All EC225 have been grounded in Norway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radleigh Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 UK CAA have grounded all EC225's too. Not a nice day.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B (Sc) Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 Thanks for that James. I realise there are strong similarities in the design philosophies and I agree it's not helpful to pontificate from the safety of our armchairs. You sound as if you are an engineer yourself - as I am, though in a rather different discipline. I was reflecting both on how the offshore workers must be feeling - I was one once, and also how the design and development staff at Airbus (ex-Aerospatiale/Eurocopter) are feeling. Most complex pieces of kit as you say. It always bothered me somewhat that no matter how good the design or balancing, there was almost always a small residual vibration in any helicopter. Hard working machines and very demanding to maintain too. That the type has been grounded for now on both sides of the North Sea is not surprising. The finding of the main rotor in such a complete state will help the investigators greatly. Sad stuff. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 Looks like grounding is the right thing to do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wafu Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 Very sad news, thoughts to the CHC crew and the clients families. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 A dreadful day indeed. That is news no-one should ever have to break to a close family member Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNoAF Aerobatic Team Posted April 30, 2016 Author Share Posted April 30, 2016 http://www.tv2.no/v/1039640/ A video of the rotor still in the air after the helicopter has crashed... Tragedy all together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 Being an Ex Puma engineer that vidio is very scary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julien Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 Being an Ex Puma engineer that video is very scary.To a non engineer its very scary! RIP guys no one should have this happen travelling to or from work. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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