In the waters between Shetland & Orkney this afternoon. This is all getting a bit too common for my liking as someone who works offshore.
Hope everyone is rescued ok.

wish I could cycle to work…

Source? I can’t find anything.
Was it an oil crew? Who flies between Orkney and Shetland by chopper? Thought it was all Scatsta for up there.

http://news.stv.tv/north/196096-helicopter-ditches-in-north-sea-as-rescue-operation-under-way/

On Sky new. CHC chopper. All 19 now rescued..
Looking at CHC flight schedule, it may have been a flight to Brae. Not confirmed though.

here

Only a few days ago I was hearing about more cracking issues with the main gearbox on S92, which we use in Norway.

Magic i was due to fly out this morning from CHC got bumped to tomorrow’s flight. That is going to be interesting now!

Sounds like the pilot made the right call ditching it;

The report suggests the helicopter came close to being involved in a much more serious incident.

Aviation writer Jim Ferguson said: “Unlike the 10 May Bond incident, this emergency saw the shaft crack actually taking out both lubricating oil pumps and hence the immediate water landing was absolutely essential and prevented a far worse outcome than a ditching.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-20076907

Scary stuff, flippin lucky it managed a controlled ditch….

that’s 4 in a few years now and only one of those has resulted in deaths which was sadly everyone on board but such is the way with these things. The safety systems (HUMS etc) have made a real impact, as has the training, but I wonder why there has been so many lately? Just getting near the end of their serviceable life? Need to read up on the crashes.

The AAIB interim report is almost a cut and paste from the earlier accident. A weld on the shaft broke which stopped both oil pumps from working. The drill is to start the emergency lubrication system which should allow the gearbox to run for up to 30 minutes however that failed after around 60 seconds (same as before) so the crew had no option but to put it down.