Norwegian helicopter makes emergency landing on oil tanker in the North Sea
Tue Nov 5, 7:56 AM ET
OSLO, Norway - A helicopter with 16 people aboard made an emergency landing on an oil tanker on Tuesday after it ran into trouble after taking off from an oil platform in the North Sea. Nobody was injured.
The Super Puma MKII helicopter was on its way from the Sleipner offshore oil platform to the Sola Airport, near to the Norwegian west coast port of Stavanger.
It sent a distress call, then landed on the 265-meter (875-foot) long oil tanker Navion Anglia's helicopter landing pad, said Bjoern Magnussen of the Rescue Coordination Center.
The landing, at about 08:30 a.m. (0730 GMT), went without incident about 28 kilometers (17 miles) off the town of Sola, according to the Norwegian state oil company Statoil ASA, which operates the Sleipner field.
The oil tanker was heading to port near Stavanger with the helicopter aboard. According to the Norsk Helikopter AS, the pilot decided to land after the rotor developed a severe vibration. The helicopter had 14 passengers and two crew aboard.
Stavanger, the center of Norway's oil industry, is about 300 kilometers (190 miles) west of the capital, Oslo.