Sumburgh Chinook - 30th anniversary

[212man]

Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the BV234 accident near Sumburgh, that killed 45 and left 2 survivors. The Captain's recent account here: https://www.energyvoice.com/insights/122477/chinook-remembered-pilot-survived-still-feels-guilty-helicopter-crash/

Report here: https://www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/2-1988-boeing-vertol-bv-234-lr-g-bwfc-6-november-1986

[Nigerian Expat Outlaw]

An awful tragedy. Pushp was haunted by that all the time I knew him in Nigeria.

NEO

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Horrendous - he had no reason to blame himself or feel guilty, the fact that he did is a tribute to his humanity.

[Nigerian Expat Outlaw]

Absolutely, poor guy. I never had any issues with him all the time I knew him. Very good squash player !

A friend of mine met the other survivor, he flew him out of Humberside. He said the guy was petrified of flying but had to in order to keep his job on the platform. Can't blame him at all after that.

I'd have thought a considerate employer would have employed him onshore ?

NEO

[soggyboxers]

The copilot, 'Low level Neville' Nixon (so nicknamed because he was a safe, cautious pilot), had been an offshore-based 212 pilot on the Brent but gave up flying to go and support his wife when she took over the pharmacy business where she was working when the owner retired. Sadly the business didn't prosper and Neville decided to return to flying not long before the accident. He joined BIH and was given a Chinook conversion and often used to chat with his old friends on the Treasure Finder when he was in the Brent area. I was chatting to him just before he departed to Sumburgh. Life's so unfair sometimes.
Pushp came out to Nigeria to fly for ACN and retired from there. When I first met him he explained how the pink patches of skin on his face were caused by fuel burns from the spilled fuel on the surface of the sea while he was waiting to be rescued. He was remarkably lucky to have survived such a catastrophic accident.

[stacey_s]

Dear Old Neville, also mentioned in a Readers Digest article about flying on the Brent in the North Sea as 'Low level Neville'.

[Thridle Op Des]

In the slightly bizarre way of this small world, Pushp's daughter was a cabin crew on one of my flights last year.