DMackie
Come on, lets get the facts right, shall we!
Of the five incidents you refer to, one was CFIT, two were precautionary landings/ditchings and one was a catastrophic failure of the gearbox. The fifth, we don't know yet!
The BBC News website is still referring to the EC225 ditchings last year as 'crashes'. If we follow that analogy, the BA Airbus that lost it's engine cowlings a few months ago, should be designated as a 'crash' not a precautionary landing! Just because the Airbus crew could fly around to reduce fuel before returning to Heathrow, does that make it really any different to the EC225 crews carrying their landings?
Four fatalities are four too many. But as HC has posted earlier, more than four people are killed on Aberdeenshire roads every week and no one really cares, except the relatives.
As a pilot currently flying the AS332L, I am affected by this tragic accident, as I'm sure are all the North Sea pilots. I want to know what happened just as much as anyone else. But let the AAIB do their job and publish an interim report before people start making ill informed decisions.
Bondu