European Regulators Urge Inspections of Airbus Helicopters After Norway Crash -- Update

By Kjetil Malkenes Hovland and Robert Wall 

OSLO -- European air safety officials Tuesday called for emergency inspections of Airbus Group SE EC225 helicopters hours after Norway's Accident Investigation Board said Friday's fatal crash on Norway's west coast was caused by a technical problem and not pilot error.

The board drew its conclusion from a preliminary assessment of flight recorder data, visual observations and the helicopter wreckage.

The Cologne, Germany-based European Aviation Safety Agency on Tuesday evening issued an emergency airworthiness directive instructing users of the Airbus helicopter to perform a series of inspections before their next flights. The bulletin backed the findings of air accident investigators that a technical problem, rather than pilot error, was responsible for the crash of the CHC Helicopter machine, killing all 13 people on board.

The EASA said the checks should include some components linked to the main gearbox, as well as other items that could signal an equipment fault.

Should any issues be identified, flights with the helicopter shouldn't continue until fixes are put in place, the EASA said. The agency added that it would permit operators to conduct so-called ferry flights, which don't involve passengers, to reposition a helicopter to undergo checks.

"This is a technical accident," said Kare Halvorsen of the Norwegian Accident Investigation Board at a news conference Tuesday at the Haakonsvern naval base in Bergen, Norway. "This is not an accident caused by human mistakes in the helicopter."

The helicopter crashed while flying to Bergen Airport from Statoil ASA's Gullfaks B oil platform. Norwegian and British air safety regulators imposed a ban on all EC225 passenger flights

Mr. Halvorsen said the rotor had separated from the chopper before the crash, and that the helicopter hadn't sent any distress signals, indicating that the accident had happened very quickly.

The Norwegian agency said the search for additional helicopter parts at the crash site would continue, but had been temporarily halted on Tuesday owing to bad weather conditions.

Airbus had previously said it saw no reason for the grounding, citing evidence its inspectors found in assessing wreckage.

The EC225 has been involved in previous incidents linked to problems with the main gearbox. However, an Airbus spokesman said early evidence suggest last week's accident had a different cause, based on its investigators' findings.

The EC225 is a mainstay of helicopter operations to North Sea offshore oil and gas facilities. Helicopter operators have been forced to bring in other models to provide capacity to ferry oil workers and equipment while the EC225 helicopters are sidelined.

Some operators have taken action beyond those required by regulators. Bristow Group Inc. Monday said it would also idle some EC225s in Australia where that action wasn't required. A unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it would suspend all its CHC provided passenger flights in Norway while it determined whether all operational standards had been met.

Write to Kjetil Malkenes Hovland at [e-mail] and Robert Wall at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 03, 2016 17:30 ET (21:30 GMT)

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