I was at EC Marignane on course when the 225 accident occured. No internet or anything, bit I knew immediately something was on when the EC personnel started sending us on smoke breaks and gathering together. At first, they would not answer the "what is going on" question. Very late in the afternoon once it was in the press we were told the 225 went down and it is under investigation.
A human error was very much on the cards, even on this thread, right from the beginning, yet the EC guys did not speculate until it was confirmed and even afterwards their discussions never included the operator or crew but only the aircraft.
I understand those flying the type needs answers asap, but what do you want EC, Bond and the authorities to say if nobody knows? I can just imagine the reaction at Marignane (after seeing the response to the 225) to this accident. Safety first, but if EC ground the 332L2 fleet after all the hours accumulated up to now, the offshore transport is very much at a standstill especially in certain areas where only L2's are operated as the mainstay aircraft with an impeccable safety record.
Having worked with the L2 I have my theories, but all require more than one failure and or mistake to result in such a tragic accident. We had a seemingly human factors 225 accident, a MGB failure on the 92 and who knows what happened here? I hope the boxes can tell the story and honestly do not believe any helicopter flying out there today is designed/flown/maintained/operated with the intention to fail.