The Super Puma helicopter has experienced a troubled recent history.
The aircraft – manufactured by Eurocopter – was at the centre of a major probe in 2009 after Bond flight 85N plunged into the North Sea, killing all 16 men on board.
The fatal flaws that led to the tragedy were laid bare by air crash investigators last year.
An alarm sounded on the Bond-operated helicopter at 12.54pm on April 1, 2009. Just 23 seconds later, all contact with the aircraft was lost.
It later emerged that a magnetic particle was found on part of the main rotor gearbox – known as the second-stage planet gear – a week before the Super Puma crashed.
This prompted Bond Offshore Helicopters to initiate a plan to remove the gearbox and replace it with a unit from another helicopter.
However, the piece of debris was dismissed after a “misunderstanding” between Bond engineers and Eurocopter.
The appearance of the particle is seen as an early warning of a possible gearbox failure.
The Super Puma operator had asked for help from Eurocopter about the gearbox problem and, after further examination, the particle was misidentified as “unimportant”.
The tragedy happened just weeks after another Bond-operated Super Puma plunged into the North Sea. All 18 people on board survived the crash.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has issued 17 safety recommendations to organisations including Eurocopter, the European Aviation Safety Agency, the UK Civil Aviation Authority and the Federal Aviation Administration in the US.
Eurocopter said it had full confidence in the various measures that have been implemented following the accident, including methods of information-sharing, maintenance and inspection procedures and technical improvements in particle-detection.
Eight of the men killed when flight 85N went down were from the north-east.
They were Brian Barkley, 30; James Costello, 24; Alex Dallas, 62; and Vernon Elrick, 41, all of Aberdeen; Stuart Wood, 27, of Newmachar; Warren Mitchell, 38, of Oldmeldrum; Leslie Taylor, 41, of Kintore; and Paul Burnham, 31, of Methlick.
Also killed in the crash were Raymond Doyle, 57, of Cumbernauld; James Edwards, 33, of Liverpool; Nairn Ferrier, 40, of Dundee; Nolan Goble, 34, of Norwich; Gareth Hughes, 53, of Angus; David Rae, 63, of Dumfries; Richard Menzies, 24, of Droitwich Spa; and Mihails Zuravskis, 39, of Latvia.
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