Statoil said it will not use Airbus’ Super Puma helicopter even if they are eventually given the go-ahead by Norway’s Civil Aviation Authority.
“We have no plans to use this helicopter ever again, even if Norwegian authorities decides to lift the ban”, Statoil spokesman Morten Eek told Reuters.
“It doesn’t matter what the Aviation Authority say. We can specify the helicopter type we want to use and we have already built up capacity with a different helicopter. The Sikorsky S-92.”
The Super Pumas EC225s were banned in the wake of fatal helicopter crash, which killed all 13 people on board.
They were flying from Statoil’s Gullfaks B platform 175km north west of Bergen when the tragedy unfolded.
The helicopter plunged onto rocks on the rugged coastline near Turøy, just west of the village of Solsvik, 23km from Bergen’s Flesland airport.
Data revealed the aircraft dropped 2,100 feet in the last 10 seconds of the flight.
Preliminarily findings include the crash being caused by a technical fault casing the helicopter’s main rotor blades to separate from the aircraft.
A commercial traffic ban for the model remains in place in Norway and the UK.
Earlier this year, video footage emerged of the Super Pumas, dubbed the workhorse of the North Sea, being carted out of Aberdeen.
Oil worker Neil Cran posted the video.
He said: “A welcome sight for all offshore workers . . . Puma/Super Puma helicopters leaving Aberdeen heading south hopefully never to return.”
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