According to a BBC report, rescuers have confirmed 11 people have died, and two are missing. Norway’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRRC) is leading the response.
All commercial H225s in Norway and the U.K. have been grounded as a result of the accident, following safety directives from the two countries’ civil aviation authorities.
The aircraft involved in the accident, which was being operated on behalf of Statoil, was returning to Bergen from the Gullfaks B platform, 120 kilometers off the Norwegian mainland, when it went down on the edge of the island of Turøy in the Fjell municipality at about 12:00 p.m. local time (6:00 a.m. EDT).
“It is a very small island and [helicopter] parts are spread partly on land, partly in the sea,” Jon Sjursoe, a spokesman for the JRRC, told AFP. Of those on board the aircraft, he said 11 were Norwegian, one Britain and one Italian.
While the specifics of the crash are clearly still to be determined, according to flightradar24, ADS-B data show that the aircraft dropped 2,100 feet (640 meters) during the last 10 seconds of its flight. This appears to be corroborated by eyewitness reports.
“There was an explosion and a very peculiar engine sound, so I looked out the window,” an island resident told the local newspaper Bergensavisen. “I saw the helicopter falling quickly into the sea. Then I saw a big explosion. Pieces [of the helicopter] flew into the air.” Bergensavisen also reported that several witnesses claimed to see the rotor detach before the helicopter crashed, but this has not been officially confirmed.
“Out of respect for passengers and crewmembers, all flights with the aircraft type H225/EC225 have been stopped in the Norwegian sector,” CHC said in a statement. “Flights with other aircraft are temporarily halted, and will continuously be evaluated.”
In a brief statement on the crash, Statoil said it has mobilized its emergency response organization and established a center for next of kin. It has also take the step of temporarily grounding all “equivalent traffic” helicopters used to ferry its workers.
H225 manufacturer Airbus Helicopters said it was “deeply saddened” upon hearing of the crash.
“We express our deepest sympathy and our thoughts are with the victims, their relatives, friends and colleagues,” the company said in a statement. “Safety is Airbus Helicopters’ top priority and we are providing our full support to both the accident investigators as well as CHC. Airbus Helicopters teams are fully mobilized to understand the root cause of the accident.”
The AS332/H225 Super Puma came under severe scrutiny for offshore operation in 2012, following two high-profile ditchings in the North Sea — one of which was a CHC-operated aircraft. CHC was among a number of operators to bar its H225 fleet from over-water operations following the second ditching, which was found to be caused by a circumferential crack on the bevel gear vertical shaft, which meant the main and standby oil pump gears ceased to be driven.
Airbus spent the best part of year developing and extensively testing a redesigned vertical bevel gear shaft for the aircraft, which it said eliminated all three factors that had caused the 2012 ditchings.
Then, in August 2013, just weeks after CHC began returning H225s to over-water service, one of the operator’s AS332 L2s crashed off the coast of the Shetland Islands, to the northeast of the Scottish mainland, killing four offshore workers.
The incident led to the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority initiating a safety review of offshore public transport helicopter operations in support of oil and gas exploitation. The review resulted in the publication of CAP 1145, and the announcement of a series of measures designed to strengthen safety in North Sea helicopter operations, such as prohibiting routines helicopter flights in conditions exceeding sea state 6, and a requirement for helicopter operators to ensure that emergency flotation systems are armed for all over-water departures and arrivals.
Due to its recent experience in investigating offshore accidents, the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch said it was deploying a small team to assist its Norwegian counterparts as they work to piece together what caused today’s crash.