Comments below from RAF Sea King crew who arrived on scene shortly after accident. I appreciate there are those who think it crass to question the causes of such a tragedy without waiting months for the AAIB findings, however, I think it is only natural that we seek to discover answers and information from the professionals who share this forum. I also have to say I do not believe to call such an incident a "crash" is itself an exaggeration when by then we had five confirmed dead and many missing.
Just a personal point, but one thankfully this forum allows me to make.
Flight Lieutenant Paul Hopson - the pilot of the Sea King Mark 3A scrambled to
search for survivors - said today: "At this stage we cannot say what happened
but all the indications are of a major mechanical failure.
"As far as we were aware, there was no May Day call and certainly no
emergency beacons were activated, which suggest it happened very quickly."
Co-pilot Flight Lieutenant Steve Murkin said it was unlikely to have been a
controlled ditching and the crew would have had little time to escape.
He said: "As more and more information came, it looked like it must have been
something quite catastrophic. It was not a controlled ditching as we had hoped.
"It must have been something major because it sank quite quickly and nobody
got out.
"If it is a controlled ditching, as soon as the helicopter hits the water,
big flotation bags are inflated but there were none visible, so we do not know
if they were activated."
He added that the crew, including passengers, would have had survival and
escape training and would have been wearing specialist gear, enabling them to
survive in the water for hours.
In ordinary clothes, a person would be dead within an hour, he said.
The helicopter was scrambled at 7.50pm from Wattisham Airfield and arrived at
the crash scene, some 30 miles north east of Great Yarmouth, at about 8.30pm
yesterday.
On arrival, the crew saw a patch of oil and small debris covering an area just
200 yards across.
Boats which had arrived within seven minutes had already recovered five bodies
out of the 11 people on board.
Flt Lt Murkins said the visibility was good and the water was calm so if there
had been any survivors they would have been spotted easily.
"It was perfect conditions for searching. We could see everything on the
surface and it was quite evident there was nobody on the surface to rescue. The
biggest thing we saw was a seat cushion.
"Because there is always an outside chance of survivors, you keep looking.
But within an hour it was pretty clear we were not looking for survivors in this
case anyway.
"Given the speed at which the rescue agencies were on the scene, it is likely
some of the bodies will be found in the wreckage."
Following an intensive search along with 18 boats, the helicopter crew left
just before midnight.
An investigation will be carried out by the Air Accident Investigation Board,
part of the Civil Aviation Authority, said Flt Lt Hopson.
The wreckage will probably be recovered by specialist salvage units and form
part of the investigation to find out exactly what happened, he said.