Helicopter down in GoM

[Heliport]

Times Picayune reportHelicopter reported missing in Gulf, Coast Guard search underway
6/24/2004, 5:12 p.m. CT

INTRACOASTAL CITY, La. (AP) — A helicopter with three people on board was reported missing about 25 miles south-southeast of here in Vermilion Bay, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Another helicopter heard a mayday call sent out by the OMNI Aviation aircraft at about 1:50 p.m., according to Chad Saylor, a Coast Guard spokesman in New Orleans. The aircraft is owned by OMNI Energy Services Corp., a seismic surveying company based in Carencro.

"Rescue aircraft are focused on searching and seeing if we might be able to find any survivors, and checking the validity of the report because right now we're going off of a mayday call heard in the area," Saylor said.

The Coast Guard sent two Dolphin helicopters from its air station in New Orleans and a Falcon rescue jet from its Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Ala.

Saylor said OMNI confirmed that one of its helicopters was missing. An OMNI official declined to comment Thursday afternoon, saying he did not have enough information about the incident.

Saylor said there were reports of squalls and heavy rains in the area when the mayday call went out. There was no indication that bad weather was impeding the search effort, he said.

The Coast Guard said the helicopter left Eugene Island at about 12:58 p.m. en route to Abbeville and then changed course to Intracoastal City about 40 minutes later.
The helicopter was described as a white-and-red Bell 206L, the Coast Guard said.

[Delta Julliet Golf]

Is it known what type of helicopter? Didn't a S76 disapear over the GOM a few month ago?

[OFBSLF]

See the bottom of the post above:The helicopter was described as a white-and-red Bell 206L, the Coast Guard said

[Bronx]

Lafayette Daily Advertiser

Searchers find bodies, helicopter

INTRACOASTAL CITY (AP) — The bodies of two men were found on Saturday with the wreckage of a missing helicopter in the shallow waters of Vermilion Bay, the U.S. Coast Guard said. One body is still missing.

A civilian helicopter spotted the wreck sometime before 6 p.m., ending a three-day search for the Omni Energy Services helicopter, said Petty Officer Nick Cangemi, a Coast Guard spokesman. The Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office went to the site in a boat about 6 p.m. to recover the bodies and continues to search for the third, he said.

The helicopter went down in a shallow, muddy area of Vermilion Bay about two miles southeast of Intracoastal City, Cangemi said.

The bodies that were found are not identified, but those on board were the pilot, Dan Ditwlier, 51, of Tennessee and passengers John Lewis, 50, of Lafayette and Kell Anthony Thibodeaux, 39, of Abbeville. Lewis and Thibodeaux reportedly worked for a petroleum company.

Although the Coast Guard has called off its search, Cangemi said, the Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office is continuing to look for the third body.

The Omni helicopter sent a mayday call at 1:50 p.m. Thursday during stormy weather about 25 miles south-southeast of Intracoastal City.

The Coast Guard said the helicopter, identified by Omni spokesman Tim Timperio as a Bell 206L-1, left Eugene Island at about 12:58 p.m. en route to Abbeville and then changed course to Intracoastal City about 40 minutes later.

On Saturday morning, heavy winds, thunderstorms and low visibility hampered the search, Cangemi said.



Very sad. Thoughts and prayers for them and their loved ones.

[B Sousa]

As the saying goes, "there but for fortune............" I have been through that weather and its not something I like to fly in for sure. The gulf has had its share of bad times this year for "GOMERS" heres hoping for no more.
One thing you will all notice is that the companies who hire in that area almost always require an Instrument Rating to do VFR work. My thoughts have always been that it makes Pilots a little more confident to push VFR beyond the "No Go" point in which the saying that "its not nice to mess with mother nature" comes into play. Im not saying that this was the case as the cause is not yet known.
Sad to lose another crew.........

[Heliport]

Lafayette Daily Advertiser Crews recover last victim of helicopter crash
June 29, 2004

LAFAYETTE — Search crews on Monday recovered the body of John Lewis, 50, a Lafayette oil platform worker who was on board an Omni Bell helicopter that crashed in the Vermilion Bay last week.

The bodies of the helicopter’s pilot, Dan Ditwlier, 51, of Tennessee, and passenger, Kel “Tony” Thibodeaux, 39, of Abbeville were found Saturday night.

Lewis’ body was recovered on shore at around 3 p.m. about a mile from the crash site, said Sgt. Ronald Peltier with the Marine division of the Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Crews from Acadia Parish, Calcasieu Parish, and Iberia Parish assisted the Sheriff’s Office, Peltier said. Their day began at 6 a.m. and didn’t end until 5 p.m.

“It was a successful search. We found Mr. Lewis, which was my main objective, to set his family at peace so they can put him to rest,” Peltier said.

The search will continue Tuesday to recover pieces of the helicopter still under water, including the transmission and rotary blades, to help investigators determine the cause of the crash. Peltier said he expected the recovery work to be completed Tuesday.

The U.S. Coast Guard and Omni Energy Services, which owned the helicopter, also aided in the search for the victims and the craft.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash. Representatives from Bell helicopters, Rolls Royce engines and the Federal Aviation Administration are also involved in the investigation, said Hector Casanova, National Transportation Safety Board regional director.

“They’ll be documenting the conditions of the wreckage ... and reviewing the maintenance records for the aircraft,” Casanova said.

The craft lifted off from Eugene Island at 12:58 p.m. Thursday June 24 for Abbeville, but changed its course and headed toward Intracoastal City at 1:37 p.m., according to the Coast Guard. At 1:50 p.m., a distress call was issued.

At the time the area experienced heavy rains, but Casanova wouldn’t say that weather was a factor in the accident. Weather data from within 50 miles of the accident site have been requested and will be analyzed, Casanova said. The last known location of the craft was about 70 miles south of Intracoastal City.

The Gulf of Mexico is considered a busy airspace, and some areas lack air traffic control, according to the Coast Guard.

In March, 10 men, three from Acadiana, were aboard a Sikorsky S-76A helicopter that went down off the coast of Texas. Killed were Jason Petitjean, 34 and Trampas Terwillegar, 27, both of Rayne; and Craig Bailey, 43, of St. Martinville.

Casanova estimated that the National Transportation and Safety Board investigates about 10 helicopter crashes a year in the Gulf of Mexico.

[MaxNg]

Heliport

"Casanova estimated that the National Transportation and Safety Board investigates about 10 helicopter crashes a year in the Gulf of Mexico".


As a North sea oil support Capt I find this situation criminal.

For christ's sake the oil companies are printing money and the fact that these mega companies are on one hand providing IFR rated and trained crews with the proper aircraft for the enviroment encountered in some countries and then on the other hand put their workers in single engined VFR a/c and send them out to sea is in my opinion shows their complete disregard for the lives of workers.

Make a stand or become a statistic your choice.

My sincere condolences to all lost and effected.


:( :(

FAA

must mean For Allowing Accidents

[Autorotate]

Actually FAA stands for Fu*kwits Against Aviation.

[MaxNg]

Autorotate

Your not kidding

I have and will continue to critisize the UK CAA for stupid and inane rules brought about through poorly researched data but I applaud there strength and commitment to drive the accident rate down to ZERO

It appears that the FAA succumes to a high and mighty ideal that freedom of operational restraint will bring the same goal.

They are very wrong, and innocent people are paying for it with thier lives.

Out of sight of surface/hostile environment ops require suitable quilified AND equiped Pilots.

Why wait until the insurance companies force the issue with a horrendous death toll?

legislate now or Bury tommorrow



:*

[SASless]

Rumour has it the aircraft in question had gyro squawks left uncleared.....if so...combined with poor weather....could be a very bad combination. Watch for an exodus of pilots if that story is true....or a very nasty lawsuit. Unfortunately, that seems to be the court of last resort in the GOM.

Gomex has told me on several occasions that helicopters kill more people than any other cause in the GOM oil patch. Wonder why the industry accepts that claim to fame? Some of the pilot groups there are working to improve ATC/Radar/Weather Reporting/Communications and in fact seem to encounter resistance from many pilots flying there. Many seem to be concerned up and until it is time to leave the crew room and either go flying or go on time off.:confused:

[crop duster]

The pilots name was Donny Detwiler. Good old southern red neck. I was his relief the last time I flew GOM. We didn't see each other often, as relief pilots go, but the guys on the platform we stayed on all seemed to like him. He always showed up for work at the end my 14 days. Donny, hope your new hitch has favorable winds and your new bird has lots of power.

Barry

[B Sousa]

MaxNg
As I mentioned above. Majority of the companies want an IFR rated Pilot for VFR work. Check some of the Causes as to these crashes. Its the same throughout the industry. Put some pressure on something to get money in return. Where do you think the pressure goes...
I wouldnt be so quick to jump on the FAA, the rules are out there. The FAA are regulatory, not criminal investigators.
Problems like this most always end up in Civil Court.

[MaxNg]

B Sousa

You said

I wouldnt be so quick to jump on the FAA, the rules are out there. The FAA are regulatory, not criminal investigators.
Problems like this most always end up in Civil Court.

The rules are out there!

Are these operators breaking the law?

The FAA are regulatory!

Then it is thier responsibility to Regulate to prevent such risks.

Problems like this always end up in court!

Usually because someone has Died.

The role of a good regulator is to be Proactive and not Reactive

I am a realist and I have been flying for over fifteen years now, and I dont expect pilots in this very competitive and macho industry to individually set personal dispatch criteria that would make them uncompetitive within there sphere of thier operations.

In this dog eat dog world of offshore support, a pilot with higher than most dispatch minima ie (Wx/, A/c , defered defects,Support/logistics etc.) would find themselves the least likely to be employed by operators who will only take note safety when forced to do so.

Likewise I dont expect operators to set dispatch criteria uncompetitively higher than thier compittors, this has to be the role of the regulators and if the rules called for twin IFR ops then ALL would comply and profit margins would still be the same, but there would I feel be far less loss of lives.

I dont offer Twins/IFR ops as a panacea to prevent all accidents but looking at the appalling attrition rates in the GOM area it would certainly improve your particular problem.



:(

[RDRickster]

There was a recent Discovery Channel program (or maybe it was on Public TV) that discussed aviation risks and costs in the U.S. It focused on large airlines, but the bottom line was that in order to implement real safety change, a lot of people had to die. The insurance and aviation companies would calculate what the average settlement costs would be versus the costs of putting in new or upgraded safety equipment. If it costs LESS to pay-off the victim's families, then change was not likely to happen.

The point?... If a helicopter crew goes down, the expense to the company is far less, based on occuranace and actual number of claims, than it is for an airliner that carries several hundred passengers. Also, the Union (if they have one) isn't going to be able to dictate twin engine IFR aircraft to the companies... especially, when low-time pilots will line up to assume that risk just to get hours.

The FAA has two conflicting roles. They are charted to foster the aviation industry, but they are also chartered to regulate it. To me, that's a real conflict of interest.

Condolenses to family and friends.

[gomex]

I am sorry to hear another pilot and passenger lost, my condolences to the families. Bad weather will most likely be the cause of the accident, but other causes are customers pushing pilots to fly in weather that they should not be in. The major operators has set high weather standards, but some of the indepentent oil companies will do whatever it take to make a buck.(dollar) The company that I work for has lost several contracts from these indepentent operators, because we will not push weather. This helicopter company that had the accident has bragged about doing whatever it take to keep the customer happy. I also blame the FAA, there is no standards when it come to applying the rules equally among the helicopter operators. AirLog and PHI are held to much higher standard, than are the small operators,ie: training, maintenance. Why would the FAA allow single engine helicopters to fly over water, that the sea state is higher that the float system is rated for? I hope the pilots can address some of these questions at the Safety seminar being held in Mississippi this October, by the Profesional Helicopter Pilots Association.

[diethelm]

Any accident is a tragedy. I would prefer that we all live to 85 and have a few scotches. In this case we do not have any data about the causes and so, we wait to see what happened and attempt to learn from others.

No matter what your boss says, your life, your reputation and your family are worth more than a paycheck. At the end of the day, if you fly into bad weather, use an aircraft without appropriate operating equipment or exercise poor judgement, it is your fault. No one, at least in America, has the ability to force you to check your good judgement at the door. Just as there are lots of lawyers who want to sue after an accident, there are plenty of lawyers ready to sue if you are fired merely for refusing to fly when many others would surely testify it would be stupid.

No matter how many laws a government writes, you can not legislate good judgement or outlaw stupidity. We need to quit relying on authorities to solve problems which are under our own control.

Almost every person in the world has done some amazingly stupid things when they were young that could have had a serious negative impact on their longevity. There are no excuses for bad judgement as adults, just consequences.

[Mars]

NTSB Advisory
National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594
July 7, 2004
UPDATE ON INVESTIGATIONS OF RECENT HELICOPTER ACCIDENTS

Vermillion Bay, Louisiana
On June 24, 2004, at approximately 1:50 p.m. CDT, a Bell 206-L1, N5006F, registered to and operated by American Helicopters Inc. (AHI), of Angleton, Texas, was destroyed when it impacted water in the Gulf of Mexico, near Vermillion Bay, Louisiana. The commercial pilot and two passengers sustained fatal injuries. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed throughout the area of the accident, and a company flight following plan was filed for the on-demand air taxi flight.

The AHI flight was contracted by Flow Petroleum Services of Lafayette, Louisiana, to transport personnel from offshore platforms to Abbeville, Louisiana. Recorded excerpts extracted from the operator's flight following system revealed that the helicopter departed from offshore platform East Cameron 321 at 12:13 p.m., en route to Eugene Island 349, with one passenger and three hours of fuel onboard. The 70-nautical mile flight arrived on offshore platform Eugene Island 349 at 12:52 p.m., and picked up a second passenger. The flight departed Eugene Island 349 at 12:58 p.m., with three persons and 2.15 hours of fuel onboard. The estimated time of arrival at Abbeville was 1:55 p.m.

At 1:29 p.m., the pilot contacted the AHI flight following service with a normal position report and reported inbound to Abbeville. At 1:37 p.m., the pilot radioed a change to his destination from Abbeville to Intercoastal City, Louisiana. The pilot did not give a reason for the change of destination. During the radio call, the pilot gave an estimated time of arrival time of 1:50 p.m., with 45 miles and 1.15 hours of fuel remaining. At 1:51 p.m., AHI flight following attempted to contact the accident aircraft; however, no communication was established.

The pilots of a helicopter operating in the vicinity of Intercoastal City reported that they heard a Mayday call approximately 1:50 p.m. They stated that they heard "Mayday-Mayday-Mayday," then asked for a location with no response. They then heard another "Mayday-Mayday-Mayday, going in the water." No further communications or reported distress calls were heard by the pilots and there were no reported eyewitnesses.

The main wreckage was located in 25 feet of water approximately 500 yards from the north shore of Vermillion Bay, Louisiana. The tail boom and vertical fin were found approximately 1 mile northeast of the main wreckage area. The wreckage was transported to a hangar located in Carencro, Louisiana, for a detailed examination. Assisting in the investigation were representatives from Rolls Royce (the engine manufacturer), Bell Helicopter, and AHI. Damage to the airframe structure, flight controls, and engine, was consistent with water impact in an abnormal attitude. The skid mounted float system was not deployed. No preimpact mechanical anomalies have been noted in the recovered wreckage. The transmission, main rotor hub and mast assembly, and main rotor blades have not been found, and search efforts continue for these and any other missing components. The engine was recovered and will undergo a detailed examination at a later date.

At 1:21 p.m., the National Weather Service (NWS) Storm Prediction Center issued a Severe Thunderstorm watch for portions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and coastal waters. The last position reported by the pilot at 1:37 p.m. appeared to cross the southeast portion of the watch area. Microbursts, downbursts, heavy rain, moderate and greater turbulence and local IFR conditions were implied by the advisory. The accident site was located within the boundary of the advisory.

The investigator-in-charge for this accident is Alex Lemishko of the South Central Regional Office in Arlington, Texas.

The NTSB identification number for this investigation is FTW04FA168.

[Head Turner]

So far as is reasonably practicable springs to mind.
If the cost of making an improvement in regard to time, trouble and money is higher than the benefits of preserving lives and machinery then sod all will happen and that is the case here.

It's a sad world where money is more important than peoples lives. Just look at the politics round about you, recent events clearly demonstrate this fact.

My condolences go out to all those affected by this and other similar events.

I do my best to preserve life, corporations do their best to make money.

END