5:00pm Thursday 24th November 2011
THE operators of a helicopter which crashed into the North Sea killing a Droitwich man had been planning to replace a major mechanical part a week before the tragedy.
Richard Menzies – a former Pershore High School pupil – was among 16 people killed when the Eurocopter Super Puma plunged into the sea as it returned from the BP Miller oil platform.
The 24-year-old, of Westwood Park, had qualified to fly helicopters to and from oil rig platforms just weeks before the crash and was co- pilot on the doomed Bond Offshore flight.
According to a report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) published today a magnetic particle had been found in the gearbox of the Eurocopter Super Puma on March 25, 2009.
As a result the operator’s engineers had sought the assistance of the manufacturer, Eurocopter, and planned to remove the main rotor gearbox and replace it with a unit from another helicopter, said the report.
But there was a misunderstanding between the operator and the manufacturer and the particle was misidentified as ‘unimportant’. As a result plans to replace the gearbox were cancelled.
A few days later, as the helicopter was flying to Aberdeen from the Miller Platform on the afternoon of April 1, 2009, the main rotor separated from the fuselage and the aircraft crashed into the sea.
The crash was caused by the failure of the main rotor gearbox. All 14 offshore workers and the two crewmen, including Mr Menzies, died.
The report told how, six seconds after expressing alarm, the captain had transmitted “Mayday Mayday Mayday” followed one second later by the co-pilot transmitting “Mayday Mayday Mayday, this is Bond 85 November, emergency, currently on the 055.”
The report went on: “One second later, one of the flight crew uttered an expletive; this was the final radio transmission.”
The aircraft was at 2,000ft when the accident happened.
As the oil pressure dropped, the helicopter began to descend and failed to respond. About 20 seconds later the main rotor system separated from the helicopter. During separation the main rotor blades struck the helicopter’s tail boom in several places, severing it from the fuselage.
“The fuselage fell into the sea at high vertical speed and the impact was non-survivable for all occupants,” said the report.
In today’s final report, which followed three interim reports, the AAIB listed 17 recommendations to Eurocopter, the European Aviation Safety Agency, the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority and America’s Federal Aviation Administration.
Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) welcomed the publication of the report and promised that the findings would be fully considered by its health and safety division.
An investigation by Grampian Police is on-going.
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