Eight killed and eight missing after Bond Super Puma crash in North Sea
Search efforts have resumed to find eight occupants of a Eurocopter AS332L offshore oil platform transport helicopter still missing after it crashed into the North Sea, killing eight others on board.
Fourteen passengers and two pilots were on board the aircraft, operated by Bond Offshore Helicopters. The search off the eastern Scottish coast, suspended at 22:00 yesterday, resumed at 06:30 today.
The Coast Guard says eight of the 16 on board the helicopter have yet to be found. "Two liferafts were spotted in the water, which were both overturned," it adds. Two lifeboats and seven other vessels are scouring an area spanning 30nm (55km).
Bond's offshore flight information centre indicates that all services today to the various oil fields have been cancelled, while the transport union RMT says the helicopter type should be grounded pending investigation.
"Reports indicate that the crash was the result of a catastrophic failure in the aircraft, and it would make sense for the model involved to be grounded until it is clear what caused it," says RMT offshore organiser Jake Molloy.
Two Royal Air Force rescue helicopters were scrambled after the Coast Guard received notification, just before 14:00 yesterday, that a helicopter had ditched about 22km off the coast of Crimond, between Fraserburgh and Peterhead.
Lifeboats were dispatched and a British Aerospace Nimrod maritime patrol jet diverted to assist, while several other vessels headed for the search area.
Circumstances of the accident remain unclear. It comes just six weeks after a Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma, also operated by Bond, ditched near an oil platform on 18 February. All 18 occupants were rescued.
