Helicopter wreckage recovered

Press, 10 November 1986, Page 10

Helicopter wreckage recovered

NZPA-Reuter Sumburgh Investigators probing the world’s worst civilian helicopter accident said yesterday that they had recovered important pieces of wreckage from the aircraft that crashed on Thursday killing 45 people.

The Boeing-Vertoi Chinook helicopter with 47 people on board crashed into rough seas off Scotland. It had been ferrying oil men from Shell’s Brent oilfield in the North Sea to Sumburgh airport on the southern tip of the remote Shetland Islands.

Investigators said yesterday that worsening weather was threatening to disrupt the salvage, with key- parts of the wreckage still on the seabed.

Mr David King, who is in charge of the Transport Department investigation, said the front part of the helicopter, including the cockpit and five seat rows, had been lifted from the seabed.

Important mechanical components, including the forward gear box, the rotor head and the two engines, had also been salvaged, he said.

The cockpit voice recorder was found on Saturday and flown to a laboratory in England, where it is due to be replayed today. Only two people, including one crew-mem-ber, survived the disaster. They were winched out of rough, icy water minutes after the crash by a Coastguard helicopter on a routine patrol.

Lieutenant Merrick Forsyth, from a Royal Naval air squadron, said yesterday that the crash had probably been caused by a catastrophic failure of a mechanical

component. The Chinook had had minor problems, involving a oil leak from one of the engines, just before it left on its last flight, but Lieutenant Forsyth could not say whether this was related to the crash. British International, the company which owned the helicopter, has grounded its three other Chinooks — the only ones in Britain —■ pending the result of the investigation. Sources close to the investigation said yesterday that the crash had almost certainly been

caused by trouble in the main gear box, which has not yet been recovered.

They said the giant Chinook, first built for the United States military in 1966, was disliked by oil men because of its cramped seating arrangements. In case of a crash, there was only one exit for the 44 passengers.

Mr King refused to speculate on the cause of the accident, but added that the two survivors might be able to shed light on the final ■moments of the flight.