Edinburgh, Scotland–The Associated Foreign Press (AFP) reported a BP oil company helicopter carrying 14 rig workers and 2 chopper crew members crashed in North Sea 35 miles off the coast of Crimond around 2:00 p.m. On Wednesday. The Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) rescuers retrieved 8 confirmed dead bodies out of the North Sea and remain searching for the other missing eight.
The Coastguard confirmed 2 Royal Air Force helicopters and a Nimrod marine patrol aircraft responded to the crash location immediately when they received the mayday signal from the Aberdeen Coastguard. The Super Puma helicopter, operated by Bond, an offshore aviation firm, was transporting 14 passengers for oil giant BP. This is the second North Sea helicopter disaster since February involving a Bond company helicopter. Fortunately, all 18 people on board the Super Puma helicopter in the February crash survived.
Reports state dozens of helicopter flights to and from oil rig platforms off the northeast Scotland shore fly every week. Helicopter transportation is one of the main sources of ferrying oil workers to and from North Sea platforms. An official report about Bond’s February chopper crash revealed a warning system, informing the pilots they were too close to the water in foggy conditions, had failed.
Provided by New York personal injury attorney Jonathan C. Reiter an aviation accident litigator. Empire State Building, 350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2811, New York, NY 10118. Telephone (212) 736-0979. www.jcreiterlaw.com
