Engineers found no sign of any problems with the gearbox of a helicopter the night before it plunged into the North Sea like a “torpedo”.
Yesterday, Torquil Allen, 60, told the fatal accident inquiry into the deaths of the 16 people killed in the 2009 Super Puma disaster he was a deputy engineering team leader for operator Bond at the time.
He said checks carried out on the aircraft on March 31, hours before it went down, did not reveal anything unusual.
“No abnormalities were found,” said Mr Allen, who added that it was not until after the crash on April 1 that he learned that a metal fragment had been discovered in the gearbox on March 25.
Asked by fiscal depute Geoffrey Main about the inspections on March 31, Mr Allen, now an engineering team leader at Bond, said: “If we were to find material, we would then be asking for further information on any previous material found.”
The inquiry, at the Town House in Aberdeen, also heard from Bond engineer Ian Underwood, 54, who said most jobs on the firm’s helicopter fleet would involve a “flick-through” of the appropriate maintenance manual in case there had been changes.
But engineers did not refer to the manual after finding a metal particle in the gearbox on March 25, the inquiry has heard.
The helicopter, a Super Puma AS332 L2, was scheduled to go on a series of flights from Aberdeen to oil platforms in the North Sea on the day of the accident. There was a known defect in its ice-detection system but this did not affect its ability to operate in the spring weather and it was deemed serviceable.
Later that day, both pilots and all 14 passengers died after it plummeted into the sea on its way from BP’s Miller platform to Aberdeen.
The inquiry has heard that engineers working on the helicopter on March 25 changed their minds about replacing its gearbox. Troubleshooting advice from manufacturer Eurocopter reassured them the Super Puma was safe to go back in the air. Had they carefully checked the relevant part of the aircraft’s maintenance manual, they would have seen an instruction to remove and open up part of the gearbox, the epicyclic module, which generated the metal fragment.
The troubleshooter they used would have directed them straight to the manual if the type of metal had been identified correctly, which it was not.
Metal particles found in the gearbox of a Bond-operated North Sea search and rescue helicopter, call sign G-REDO, in 2008 led to the epicyclic module being inspected internally, as instructed by the manual.
The inquiry continues.
Get updates from the inquiry today on EnergyVoice.com and read tead full coverage and reaction to yesterday’s session today’s Press and Journal