All Super Pumas of the type involved in recent North Sea crashes are to remain grounded until the necessary inspections and modifications are carried out.
The decision not to allow the 25 helicopters to fly was made at a top level meeting held yesterday between industry body Oil and Gas UK and helicopter operators.
The two models of the aircraft that service the UK offshore oil and gas industry were grounded on Friday after the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) ordered “urgent” safety checks on gearboxes, following the latest report on the helicopter crash in which all 16 people on board died. The Super Puma was returning from BPs Miller platform on April 1 when the accident happened 11 miles east of Peterhead.
The order was later made mandatory with a Europe-wide “airworthiness directive” from the European Aviation Safety Agency.
An initial AAIB report published by investigators said a “catastrophic failure” of the helicopter’s main gearbox was to blame.
Eurocopter, the manufacturer, also put out a bulletin on Saturday ordering modifications to be made.
The announcement that the helicopters would remain grounded was welcomed last night by unions, which said it would boost morale and raise confidence among offshore workers.
Meanwhile, as unions and politicians pushed for the return of personal safety locator beacons for offshore workers, Oil and Gas UK said it would be making this a priority.
The Super Pumas now grounded are the AS332L2, the model that was destroyed in the crash on April 1, and the EC225LP, the model that ditched in the North Sea off Aberdeen in February, when all 18 on board survived.
Oil and Gas UK expects that some will start to fly from tomorrow but says it will be about 10 days before all 25 grounded aircraft are checked. It will involve investigators stripping the gearboxes down entirely.
Malcolm Webb, chief executive of Oil and Gas UK, said: “Oil and Gas UK applauds the way in which the UK helicopter operating companies are dealing with this matter. The companies are allowed three months to complete the modification.
“However, they have decided not to fly these aircraft until both the inspection and the modification have been completed, which must be in the best interests of safety for all those working offshore.”
A spokesman for helicopter operator Bond said: “Bond is getting on with this immediately. Companies are allowed three months to comply but we are acting now. It is not going to take three months.”
He added that they were expecting to carry out the work at the rate of about one helicopter a day.
A spokesman for Shell said: “We fully support the decisions that have been made by helicopter companies. It seems a sensible option.
“I think everybody has in mind safety first and foremost. That is the most important thing to us. We need to make sure that staff are safe and we will do everything we can to make sure that this is the case.”
Jake Molloy, regional organiser of the RMT union, said: “I think what they are doing is what they should have done immediately after the accident.
“It has taken a bit of time but it has been done. That action should dispel some of the concerns that the guys have got. There is still going to be a lot of anxiety. But knowing that each and every aircraft has had full, thorough and comprehensive checks will do a great deal to give a degree of confidence back to the workforce.
“It would have been irresponsible of the operators to continue using the helicopters without these checks. It was the knowledge, the fear, of not knowing what brought the aircraft down, realising that there had been a problem but that nothing seemed to be getting done.”
Accident investigators said last week that a loose metal particle was found on a magnetic chip detector in a section of the gearbox seven days before the crash – an early warning of possible gearbox failure.
However, investigators found no sign of an incipient gearbox failure between the discovery of the chip and the accident.
Ex-RAF pilot and Flight International magazine’s safety editor, David Learmount, previously said: “They’re asking them to take it apart and look through everything – take it to bits and look at everything as if you have not looked at it before.”