European Regulators Urge Inspections of Airbus Helicopters After Norway Crash -- Update
04 May 2016 - 7:45AM
Dow Jones News
By Kjetil Malkenes Hovland and Robert Wall
OSLO -- European air safety officials Tuesday called for
emergency inspections of Airbus Group SE EC225 helicopters hours
after Norway's Accident Investigation Board said Friday's fatal
crash on Norway's west coast was caused by a technical problem and
not pilot error.
The board drew its conclusion from a preliminary assessment of
flight recorder data, visual observations and the helicopter
wreckage.
The Cologne, Germany-based European Aviation Safety Agency on
Tuesday evening issued an emergency airworthiness directive
instructing users of the Airbus helicopter to perform a series of
inspections before their next flights. The bulletin backed the
findings of air accident investigators that a technical problem,
rather than pilot error, was responsible for the crash of the CHC
Helicopter machine, killing all 13 people on board.
The EASA said the checks should include some components linked
to the main gearbox, as well as other items that could signal an
equipment fault.
Should any issues be identified, flights with the helicopter
shouldn't continue until fixes are put in place, the EASA said. The
agency added that it would permit operators to conduct so-called
ferry flights, which don't involve passengers, to reposition a
helicopter to undergo checks.
"This is a technical accident," said Kare Halvorsen of the
Norwegian Accident Investigation Board at a news conference Tuesday
at the Haakonsvern naval base in Bergen, Norway. "This is not an
accident caused by human mistakes in the helicopter."
The helicopter crashed while flying to Bergen Airport from
Statoil ASA's Gullfaks B oil platform. Norwegian and British air
safety regulators imposed a ban on all EC225 passenger flights
Mr. Halvorsen said the rotor had separated from the chopper
before the crash, and that the helicopter hadn't sent any distress
signals, indicating that the accident had happened very
quickly.
The Norwegian agency said the search for additional helicopter
parts at the crash site would continue, but had been temporarily
halted on Tuesday owing to bad weather conditions.
Airbus had previously said it saw no reason for the grounding,
citing evidence its inspectors found in assessing wreckage.
The EC225 has been involved in previous incidents linked to
problems with the main gearbox. However, an Airbus spokesman said
early evidence suggest last week's accident had a different cause,
based on its investigators' findings.
The EC225 is a mainstay of helicopter operations to North Sea
offshore oil and gas facilities. Helicopter operators have been
forced to bring in other models to provide capacity to ferry oil
workers and equipment while the EC225 helicopters are
sidelined.
Some operators have taken action beyond those required by
regulators. Bristow Group Inc. Monday said it would also idle some
EC225s in Australia where that action wasn't required. A unit of
Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it would suspend all its CHC provided
passenger flights in Norway while it determined whether all
operational standards had been met.
Write to Kjetil Malkenes Hovland at
kjetilmalkenes.hovland@wsj.com and Robert Wall at
robert.wall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 03, 2016 17:30 ET (21:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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