Norsk Super Puma down on tanker!

[simfly]

Hearing something (hopefully someone will confirm!) about a Norsk Supa Puma (MK2) giving out a mayday, intending to set down on the sea, then seeing an oil tanker and setting down on it! Understand a ballast weight flew off and embedded in the main rotor, which obviously caused severe vibration, severe enough to warrant a ditching.

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

[Cyclic Hotline]

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.

[widgeon]

can the captain of the ship claim salvage rights ?.
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=430284

[roundwego]

I hear that the Puma L2 fleet has been grounded. Anyone know who grounded them? Was it Eurocopter, a national authority, an operator or the oil companies?

As the aircraft should now have been inspected by Eurocopter, they obviously know the cause. One would normally expect a directive calling for a fleet check to allow it to continue flying. They must have found something more serious. It looks like the fleet may be grounded for a while if a modification is going to have to be produced.

[Steve76]

I bet the oil company was pleased to have a helicopter elect to make an emergency landing on all that combustible and valuable oil in their ship.
If the vibration was that severe it warranted a ditching; I would've thought that this had possibilities for a accident while attempting the landing on the ship.
Of course it is always easier to make such comments when I wasn't there.
This might be worth a poll? :)

[Woolf]

I am sure the crew involved in the incident did consider all the possiblities and felt that a landing on the tanker was the safest option. They must have felt confident to control the helicopter enough to make a safe landing which they subsequently did.

If there was a possibility of an accident or not - we certainly don't know enough to answer that, so no poll please!!!!

Let's wait and see.

Woolf

[simfly]

The info I just heard related to a ballast weight which hangs under the hub/blade root (not too sure with L2) and that a washer (I think was said) may have caused the problem. Other companies L2's taken offline for checks and possible replacement of these shimmys/washers. Understand 1 Scotia L2 back online this afternoon after replacment, though problem now is they need more replacements from Eurocopter for the rest of the fleet. I also hear rumour that Scotia and HS may do scheduled checks on this part already, but Norsk might do now.
This is just info I gathered this evening, hopefully someone else can be more specific.

[Woolf]

There are two articulated pendular weights attached to each main rotor blade on the L2 to reduce blade root vibrations. Apparently a part of this system has come lose and damaged one of the blades. Scary Stuff! :eek:

[flyer43]

Glad that some sense has prevailed. Even the thought of conducting a poll to effectively "try the aircrew" without any substantive information is absolutely unbelievable.
We're all in the same game here, at least I hope we are!! Let's find out what the real cause of the incident was and ensure that it can't be repeated.