A VITAL system designed to alert emergency services to the precise location of a helicopter crash did not work when a Super Puma plunged into the North Sea with 18 people on board.
And there was a delay of almost 30 minutes in tracing the 18 survivors in the darkness and fog because emergency location beacons in the two liferafts deployed from the stricken aircraft were jammed. Personal locator beacons (PLBs) worn by some of t
he oilmen were interfering with the emergency locator transmitters on board the life rafts.
The two pilots and 16 oil workers on board the Super Puma EC225 survived the crash on 18 February near BP's ETAP platform, 125 miles east of Aberdeen. They had managed to scramble into the helicopter's life rafts and were only 400 metres from the platform.
But a special report to be issued today by the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB), reveals: "Following the arrival of the first search and rescue helicopter in the vicinity of the ETAP platform, 27 minutes elapsed before the occupied liferafts were identified. The search was hampered by the darkness, fog and the weakness or absence of a homing signal."
The report concludes that it was "most probable" that the PLBs being worn by some passengers had "inhibited" the more powerful emergency signals on the liferafts, hampering the search.
The report also states: "The helicopter was equipped with an externally mounted, automatically deployable crash position indicator. It failed to release and, hence, did not transmit a signal. The reason for this remains under investigation."
An earlier report on the crash by the AAIB disclosed that a vital warning system failed to sound shortly before the Super Puma crashed. The system would have warned the pilots they were within 100ft of the water.
As a result of the findings, the AAIB has ordered a review on the use of location devices on helicopters.
Personal beacons were withdrawn from service in March following the crash because of concerns that they had caused the "smart" long-range beacons on the liferafts to shut down. But it had been hoped the devices could be brought back into service in July as the result of a joint action plan agreed earlier this month by oil industry leaders, helicopter operators, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Health and Safety Executive.
Oil and Gas UK, the pan-industry trade body, announced that a technical solution had been found to allow the devices to be worn again by oil workers during crew change flights. But a spokeswoman for Oil and Gas UK said yesterday that the planned reintroduction had been put on hold.
She said: "Only when all smart beacons have been replaced by non-smart technology can the next step – the reintroduction of personal locator beacons – take place."
The full article contains 471 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
