Puma down off Malaysia, all POB OK

[Gainesy]

Malaysian Helicopter Services aircraft:

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Saturday/NewsBreak/20050618143557/Article/indexb_html

[Cyclic Hotline]

Chopper Crashes Near Oil Rig Off Bintulu, All 13 On Board Safe


KUCHING, June 18 (Bernama) -- A Malaysia Helicopter Services (MHS) chopper crashed at sea near the Shell Malaysia B11 oil rig, some 170km off Bintulu in Sarawak, at about noon Saturday but all 13 people on board, including the two pilots, are safe.

Shell Malaysia said all the 11 passengers -- eight Malaysians, two New Zealanders and a Briton -- and the Malaysian pilots were evacuated by another helicopter to Miri for observation and medical treatment.

One of the passengers is reported to have sustained bruises, according to Shell Malaysia officials who were contacted.

The oil company said all family members of the passengers and pilots had been notified.

"The company's emergency response team continues to monitor the situation and will lend full assistance to later investigations into the incident," it said.

The oil company said the mishap happened at about 12.05 pm when the helicopter, on a routine flight, encountered difficulties near the B11 platform and crashed into the water.

The chopper, one of three contracted from MHS for Shell Malaysia's upstream activities, was enroute to B11 from the Miri helibase.

The identities of the passengers and pilots have yet to be released.

In Miri, next-of-kin gathered at the Columbia Medical Centre where those on board had been brought for observation and medical treatment.

Reporters were also there to attempt to get eye-witness accounts of the incident, but they were prevented from talking to anyone.

Nevertheless, according to one of the passengers, the mishap happened about 11km from the B-11 platform, and the incident was seen by personnel at the platform.

He said the helicopter was at a height of about 4,000 feet when those on board realised that something was wrong. Then, at about 1,000 feet, the chopper spun and crashed into the water.

He said all the passengers and the pilots managed to emerge from the sinking helicopter and were rescued by the oil company's emergency response team.

He said that thanks to the experienced pilots and the high level of safety standards practised by Shell, they managed to evade a worst situation had they landed on the platform.

[Hidden Agenda]

Should this be an AS 332L1 Super Puma?

On http://www.mhsaviation.com/Puma.html they describe their Puma as an AS 332L1.

[SASless]

How many accidents is this for MHC in the past year now? Second or Third? Two 61's and now the Puma?

[NorthSeaTiger]

Just read a different article regarding this and they are listing the aircraft type as EC225, anyone heard anything else ?

[bellboy]

The aircraft must have been a 332L/L1 as they have not recieved their 332L2's yet the first one being on its delivery flight. 225s not yet confirmed for MHS.

[Variable Load]

MHS operate AS.332L1 Super Puma's from their base in Miri. The L1 is the same airframe as an AS332L, but with uprated Makila engines.

The soon to be delivered AS.332L2 will be based at Kerteh on Peninsular Malaysia. The EC225 has been evaluated for MHS as a replacement for the L1s, but to date no orders have been placed.

The aircraft that ditched was an AS.332L1.

MHS have recently had two incidents with S61s. The first was a tail rotor control failure, aledgedly due to mis-routing of tail rotor control cables. There were no fatalities, however the aircraft is believed written off. The second was a double engine failure whilst hover taxying, which was the result of grass ingestion. No damage, etc.

HTH :ok:

[Cyclic Hotline]

Shell: Pilots acted heroically


BY STEPHEN THEN (STAR - Malaysia)

MIRI: The pilots flying the Super Puma helicopter that went down in the South China Sea near Shell Malaysia's B11 gas exploration platform have been described as heroes for averting a major tragedy.

Shell Malaysia chairman Datuk Jon Chadwick said veteran pilot Kapt Raj Kumar, 41, and First Officer Adnan Hairi, a former Royal Malaysian Air Force pilot, had saved the lives of 11 passengers and 29 people working on board the multi-billion structure.

“So many lives were saved because these pilots dealt with the emergency situation professionally and calmly.

“The fact that there were no fatalities was because of comprehensive training. The pilots are the real heroes in this incident.

“The other 11 on board also had extensive training on how to deal with such incidents and that is why they managed to evacuate to safety,” he said yesterday.

The incident happened on Saturday noon near the B11 gas platform some 170km offshore Bintulu.

The platform has a production capacity of some 16.9 mil cubic metres per day of gas, channelled to the world's largest liquefied natural gas production complex on the shore of Bintulu town.

It is learnt that 29 people were working on the platform structure during the time of the incident.

The 11 passengers on board the 18-seater Malaysian Helicopter Services (MHS) Aviation copter were on their way to the platform from the helicopter base in Miri when the copter encountered difficulties and aborted the landing attempt before hitting the ocean.

Shell charters the MHS copters to send their crew to the offshore fields in Sarawak.

Chadwick said Shell Malaysia would leave no stone unturned to find out what had caused the incident.

“At the moment, all we know is that the pilot reported that the copter faced technical problems and was difficult to control. The pilot aborted the landing and proceeded with a controlled emergency landing but the copter flipped while on the waters and sank within minutes,” he said.

Chadwick said all the survivors were fine, with only three now under observation at the Columbia Asia Medical Centre in Miri and would be released soon.

Shell Malaysia will salvage the sunken copter and hand it over to the Department of Civil Aviation for further investigations.

The copter is now 91.5m deep on the ocean floor.

Meanwhile, two other Super Puma helicopters belonging to MHS that are used to ferry workers to the Shell platforms have been grounded for thorough inspection.

Chadwick said comprehensive tests would be done to ensure the two copters were in good condition.

He added that Shell would find other alternative means to ferry its crew to the platforms for the time being.

[NorthSeaTiger]

Any more details on the cause of this ditching yet ?

[NorthSeaTiger]

Any further updates on this ditching ? I've heard that something about the tail rotor may be suspect ?