Bristow Flight 56C

Bristow Flight 56C
Occurrence summary
Helicopter floating after ditching
Date	19 January 1995
Summary	Lightning strike, ditching
Site	6 miles southwest of the Brae Alpha oil rig in the North Sea^[1]
Passengers	16
Crew	2
Fatalities	0
Survivors	18 (all)
Aircraft type	Eurocopter AS332L Super Puma
Aircraft name	Cullen
Operator	Bristow Helicopters
Registration	G-TIGK
Flight origin	Aberdeen Airport, Scotland, United Kingdom
Destination	Brae Alpha oil rig, Brae oilfield, North Sea

Bristow Flight 56C was a helicopter flight that flew between Aberdeen and the Brae Alpha oil rig in the North Sea. On 19 January 1995 the AS 332L Super Puma helicopter operating the route, registered G-TIGK and named Cullen, was struck by lightning. The flight was carrying 16 oil workers from Aberdeen to an oil platform at the Brae oilfield. All people on board survived.

Crew

The commander of the flight was Cedric Roberts (44). He had been with Bristow Helicopters Ltd since 1974. He was a very experienced pilot with more than 9,600 hours of flying time under his belt. The first officer was Lionel Sole (39). Sole had been with Bristow Helicopters Ltd since 1990. He had more than 3,100 hours of flying time to his credit.^[2]

Accident

En route, the helicopter ran into poor weather and was then struck by lightning. This caused severe damage to the tail rotor. Though the helicopter managed to limp for a few more minutes, the tail rotor eventually failed completely and the pilot was forced to perform an emergency autorotation onto the rough seas. Emergency floaters on the helicopter allowed the passengers and crew to be evacuated onto a life raft. Despite the high waves and bad weather, all the people on board the flight were rescued.

The lightning strike was an isolated one in the storm, and may have been induced by the helicopter flying through the cloud. The accident investigation also revealed potential troubles with the composite material with brass strip design of the rotors which made the rotorblades prone to explosion and damage from lightning strikes.

Dramatization

The incident was featured in the Mayday/Air Crash Investigation episode "Helicopter Down".

References

External links

Report Aerospatiale AS332L Super Puma, G-TIGK: Main document. Compiled by E J Trimble, Air Accidents Investigation Branch, Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, July 1997
CAA progress report for 1998 (p. 29)
CAA progress report for 1997 (p. 26)
Aviation Safety Network

← 1994
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1995 (1995)
1996 →

Jan 11 Intercontinental de Aviación Flight 256
Jan 19 Bristow Flight 56C
Feb 10 Borodianka mid-air collision
Mar 31 TAROM Flight 371
May 24 Knight Air Flight 816
Jun 9 Ansett New Zealand Flight 703
Aug 3 1995 – Aug 16 1996 Airstan incident
Aug 9 Aviateca Flight 901
Aug 21 Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529
Sep 15 Malaysia Airlines Flight 2133
Sep 22 Alaska E-3 Sentry accident
Nov 12 American Airlines Flight 1572
Nov 13 Nigeria Airways Flight 357
Dec 3 Cameroon Airlines Flight 3701
Dec 5 Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 56
Dec 6 Khabarovsk United Air Group Flight 3949
Dec 7 Air St. Martin Beech 1900 crash
Dec 13 Banat Air Flight 166
Dec 18 Trans Service Airlift L-188 crash
Dec 20 American Airlines Flight 965

Coordinates: 58°42′N 1°18′E / 58.700°N 1.300°E / 58.700; 1.300

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, May 01, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.