Oil rig chopper down at sea (March, 2009)

[2milefinal]

NTSB ADVISORY
************************************************************
National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594
March 12, 2009
************************************************************
NTSB TO ASSIST WITH INVESTIGATION OF HELICOPTER CRASH OFF
NEWFOUNDLAND COAST
************************************************************
The National Transportation Safety Board is assisting with
the investigation of the crash of a helicopter in the North
Atlantic today.
At 8:25 AM EDT, a Sikorsky S-92A heavy-lift helicopter,
(Canadian registry C-GZCH), operated by Cougar Helicopters,
ditched in the North Atlantic about 31 miles east of St.
Johns, Newfoundland. The accident investigation is being
conducted by the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of
Canada.
NTSB Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker has designated senior
air safety investigator Jim Silliman as the U.S. Accredited
Representative. The U.S. team will also include technical
advisors from the Federal Aviation Administration, Sikorsky
and General Electric.
Information on the progress of the investigation will be
released by the TSB (800-387-3557).
###
Media Contact: Peter Knudson
202-314-6100
peter.knudson@ntsb.gov

[gasper]

CBC radio news (St. John's) saying that the vessel OSPREY, has conducted a sonar sweep and concluded that the bottom is relatively flat in the helicopter crash area. They have also detected an "anomoly" in the area of the crash. They have plans to possibly raise the fuselage (if that's what the anomoly proves to be) on Monday March 16th.

[carholme]

Latest concerning location of the wreckage:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-l ... ml?ref=rss

carholme

[Widow]

At a press conference Saturday afternoon, RCMP Chief Supt. Reg Reeves read out some of the names of those still missing, and a woman who has been confirmed dead:

Peter Breen, 55, St. John's
Gary Corbett, 46, Conception Bay, N.L.
Wade Drake, 42, Fortune, N.L.
Wade Duggan, 32, Witless Bay, N.L.
Colin Henley, 38, St. John's
Ken MacRae, 47, Greenwood, N.S.
Derrick Mullowney, 51, Bay Bulls, N.L.
Burch Nash, 44, Fortune, N.L.
Paul Pike, 49, Shears Town, N.L.
Allison Maher, 26, Aquaforte, N.L. (confirmed deceased)

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/ ... ntoNewHome

My deepest sympathies to everyone effected. I hope with all my heart that some closure will be achieved through the recovery of the wreckage and its contents.

[Old fella]

I personally know Mike C. from TSB, having worked with him a few years back. A fine person to have as in-charge TSB investigator, he will do his very best and is a no nonsense individual.
Sincere condolences to those families from a portion of NL that I know well, during this difficult time in their lives.

[ahramin]

"The Nautilus suit is outfitted with an inflatable life-jacket that immediately activates in water" ????

Can anyone confirm this? That seems to go against everything we know about surviving a ditching. Could this explain why only two have been found so far?

My thoughts and prayers are with the families, friends, and staff at Cougar

Automatic deployment of inflatable life-jackets is the standard. I am not sure if the HH survival suits have hydrostatic inflation which requires the unit to be a few inches underwater to go off or the ones that just go off when wet. Probably the former.

This is normal, but should not provide more than 40 lbs buoyancy for helicopter applications.

[2R]

It must have been an inflight break up as most controlled landings in water the helicopter does not sink.
The big crash in the chinooks left 45 dead in the north sea.The helicopter had a mid air collision with itself.It was a gearbox issue that they never got resolved and No Civilians would fly in them again.After only two years of operating Boeing Chinooks in the north sea the fleet went from six to three .Three chinooks down in less than two years .
The last Boeing Chinook that went down in a controlled ditching in the north sea stayed afloat long enough for the guys to get out safely .

If this is another gearbox issue someone should kick the gearbox guy in the nuts.

[boeingboy]

It must have been an inflight break up as most controlled landings in water the helicopter does not sink.

That's a pretty bold statement. There are a a lot of controlled water landings where the heli ends up sinking - especially when the waves are fairly high. Besides - who said it was controlled?

Personally IMO - I think the MGB failed either in cruise or as the pilots tried to make a water landing. The decent rate was probably high enough to either severly injure or incapacitate the occupants. Provincail Airlines King air 200 - which is fitted for offshore survalance with High resolution video, still and FLIR cameras - was overhead the scene in 10 min. They had visual contact well before they were overhead and they reported the aircraft was floating upsidedown. I would think if it was a gentle landing and rollover - we would have more than 2 peoploe make it out of the aircraft.

Sadly - I think they will find most still strapped to their seats.

PS - Kicking the Boeing guy is going to do nothing. It's a Sikorsky heli.

[2R]

There were reports of a 4km debris field as well which would mean an inflight event as the water was only three meters swell .Not quite blowing hard enough to create a 4 km debris field that quickly .

[Widow]

More names released:

The victims who have been identified are: First Officer Tim Lanouette, 48, of Comox, B.C.; Thomas Anyll, 46, of Langley, B.C.; Peter Breen, 55, of St. John's; Gary Corbett, 46, of Conception Bay South, N.L.; Wade Drake, 42, of Fortune, N.L., Wade Duggan, 32, of Witless Bay, N.L.; Colin Henley, 38, of St. John's; Ken MacRae, 47, of Greenwood, N.S.; Derrick Mullowney, 51, of Bay Bulls, N.L.; Burch Nash, 44, of Fortune, N.L.; Paul Pike, 49, of Spaniard's Bay, N.L.; and Allison Maher, 26, of Mount Pearl, N.L.

http://www.nationalpost.com/most-popula ... id=1390394

Again, deepest sympathies go out to all affected.

[occidental]

I'm looking for an aquaintance that may have been on this flight. Has the captain been identified yet?

[Widow]

Body recovered from sunken helicopter wreckage
Last Updated: Sunday, March 15, 2009 | 1:23 PM NT


A body was recovered Sunday from the deep-sea wreckage of a helicopter that crashed off the coast of Newfoundland, officials said.

Mike Cunningham, lead investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, told reporters that crews working on the recovery effort were able to see "about 10 to 13 bodies" in the fuselage of the Cougar Helicopters aircraft, which lies beneath 120 metres of water in the Atlantic Ocean.

"That number must be taken as a guess at this time. There may be more," Cunningham told reporters. "It is very delicate work and has to be done very carefully. It's work that could take 18 to 24 hours, if everything goes well."

The crash killed 17 of the 18 people on board the helicopter, which had been heading to two offshore oil platforms when it crashed Thursday morning after reporting mechanical problems.

The recovery of the bodies comes on a day when prayers were being offered at churches across Newfoundland and Labrador for the passengers of the helicopter.

The sole survivor of the crash, Robert Decker, 30, remains in critical condition in hospital in St. John's.

Only one body, that of 26-year-old oilfield worker Allison Maher, was recovered Thursday.
Tributes are attached to the fencing outside Cougar Helicopters at the airport in St. John's. Tributes are attached to the fencing outside Cougar Helicopters at the airport in St. John's. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

Hank Williams, operations manager for the Cougar Helicopters base at St. John's airport, said the paramount concern he had heard from families is recovering the bodies of the dead.

"[It's] very important from our perspective that the next step is to bring their people home," Williams, his voice often crackling with emotion, told a media briefing Saturday.

"Every family member that I've spoken to, that is the ultimate goal right now. That's what they want," said Williams, adding that he can still see the faces of the friends and colleagues who died Thursday.

Search crews on Saturday found the fuselage of the Sikorsky S-92, owned by Cougar Helicopters, and decided to make recovery of the bodies a top priority, partly because of damage to the aircraft.

"The tail boom as I reported yesterday has been broken off, but the main fuselage or cabin structure is somewhat together, with the main door off," Cunningham said Sunday.

To raise the aircraft, the Transportation Safety Board will use a crane capable of carrying 50 tonnes of weight. The helicopter is estimated to weigh about 10 tonnes.

Nonetheless, the work of bringing it to the surface will require careful engineering and execution.

The RCMP, meanwhile, on Sunday added two more names to the list of the dead after receiving permission from their families. They have been identified as Corey Eddy, 32, of Paradise, who had originally lived in Sibley's Cove, and John Pelley, 41, of Deer Lake.

On Saturday, police identified 12 others, including two British Columbia residents, a Nova Scotia resident and nine residents of Newfoundland and Labrador. The other families as yet have not consented to releasing the remaining names. The other names released by the RCMP on Saturday were:

* Tim Lanouette, 48, Comox, B.C., the first officer on the helicopter.
* Peter Breen, 55, St. John's.
* Gary Corbett, 46, Conception Bay South.
* Wade Drake, 42, Fortune.
* Wade Duggan, 32, Witless Bay.
* Colin Henley, 38, St. John's.
* Ken MacRae, 47, Greenwood, N.S.
* Derrick Mullowney, 51, Bay Bulls.
* Burch Nash, 44, Fortune.
* Paul Pike, 49, Spaniard's Bay.
* Allison Maher, 26, Mount Pearl, formerly of Aquaforte.
* Thomas Anwyll, 46, Langley, B.C.

On Saturday, the Roman Catholic Basilica of St. John the Baptist opened its doors in St. John's to all who wanted to grieve, regardless of their religion.

"We want to be there with the people and to cry with them in their time of need as well," Archbishop Martin Currie told CBC News.

"These kind of tragedies when we hear about it there's a certain kind of numbness comes into our body," he said. "We gather as a people to discuss [it and] ask the whys in search for meaning in all this. Some people find there's meaning in faith, and others may search in other ways."

Meanwhile, flights remain suspended to and from the platforms working at the three offshore oilfields southeast of St. John's. Crews are being transported instead by vessel.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-l ... overy.html

This is really hard for me to watch. My heart is absolutely breaking for these families, all ... and for ours, all over again.

Stay safe everyone.

[airbournesailor]

Got this off CBC website. Glad to see they are recovering the remains! I really hope for the sake of all the families that they are able to recover everyone!! My thoughts are with everyone conected to this tragedy!!



Recovery crews have retrieved nine bodies from the deep-sea wreckage of a helicopter that crashed off the coast of Newfoundland last Thursday, killing 17 people.

The bodies were brought back to port in St. John's early Monday on the Atlantic Osprey, an offshore supply vessel that had been helping with the recovery effort.

A total of 10 bodies have now been recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, including that of oilfield worker Allison Maher, 26, whose body was recovered shortly after Thursday's crash. No other identifications have been disclosed.

Efforts continue to bring more to the surface, with help from an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV).

[sky's the limit]

I'm glad to see they are getting on with the recovery operations well, I'm sure the closure will be extremely important for the families.

Reading the article Widow posted last, among others, it's becoming pretty apparent this was no ordinary ditching, she went in hard. I'll be very interested to see what the cause is. As this is a very new type, I have no doubt they will raise the wreck to have a proper look at things.

stl

[Widow]

Transportation Safety Board lead investigator Mike Cunningham saidSunday the remaining bodies would hopefully be removed before they lift the wreckage out of the water.

"If they're all within the space we're talking about, we should be able to get them all. The cockpit area is very badly damaged and crushed to the point where one might suggest that there's almost nothing left of it. Whether [the two crew members] are there within the debris is [not known].

"As for the compromise to the structural integrity, which is primarily from the impact with the water, if it had been structurally sound, we probably could have lifted it with a few lifting straps. The way it is now, it's kind of like an egg that's broken, but still hanging together."

Mr. Cunningham said the crash site was "quite a jumble" and added the helicopter was "busted up pretty good, which would indicate a significant impact."

Mr. Cunningham, however, was optimistic the entire wreck site would be plucked from the bottom of the ocean, using the experience the TSB gained following the September 1998 Swissair crash off Peggy's Cove, N.S., which killed 229 people.

"If we can retrieve 95% of a large airliner which is in tiny little pieces, I'm pretty confident - unless there's something I don't know about - that we'll be able to retrieve what's down there," he said.

The family of the pilot has released his name, according to St. John's radio station VOCM. Matthew William Thomas Davis, 34, a St. John's native, was among those killed when the helicopter, which was ferrying passengers from the Newfoundland capital to offshore oil platforms, encountered mechanical problems and tumbled into the sea.

Full article here: http://www.nationalpost.com/most-popula ... id=1394247

[progman]

Some are speculating about the HH suits that the passengers wear. As a person who has been ferried back and forth between platforms in the North Sea, I have a couple of comments. Part of the training for all offshore workers is a simulated ditching in a helicopter. In Norway, you have to undergo six simulated ditchings, with 2 of the ditchings of the helicopter body upside down. The simulators use the same 5 point harnesses that the Super Puma's use. When you arrive at the heliport, you sign out a survival suit which must be worn at all times while on the helicopter. The suit must be fully zipped up, and properly worn for both the takeoff and landing portions of the flight. While in flight, you can loosen up the main zipper, but the suit cannot be removed while in flight. In case of any emergency situation, including a return to land, the suit again must be fully done up, in case of ditching. The suits do not normally come equipped with 'smoke capsule', but when you find your seat within the Super Puma, their is an emergency strobe light that you take from your seat back, and place this within a holder within the suit itself. In the case of a ditching, the strobe turns on automatically when it hits water. The suits are very buoyant and do not need inflating. The buoyancy is designed into the suite. On the newer HH suits, their is a small rebreather system. Basically, you insert the mouthpiece and inflate a pouch just behind your head. This gives you about 2 mins of air in case you cannot egress the helicopter in a timely fashion.

I don't have any pics on this computer, but when I get home, I may upload a pic of our training, showing how the suits are used.

[Siddley Hawker]

So far the only thing I've seen on the sea state at the time of the accident was that the swells were running at 3 meters. The first thing I did when I heard it on the news was check the YT weather. At the time the winds were SW, gusting to 25 knots, but the day before they had been from the SE. This would have made for one helluva cross sea in the accident area. That certainly didn't make the ditching any easier.

[canwhitewolf]

all bodies now accounted for and brought home

http://www.canada.com/news/story.html?id=1396789

Final 7 victims recovered from helicopter crash


Canwest News ServiceMarch 17, 2009 3:05 AM
StoryPhotos ( 2 )Video ( 1 )
ICON
More Images » Pallbearers carry the casket of Allison Maher during her funeral in Fermeuse, N. L., yesterday. The 26-year-old, pictured below, was one of 17 people who died when a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter crashed off the coast of Newfoundland last week. "So many hearts have been broken," the Maher family said in a statemPhotograph by: Greg Locke, Reuters, National Post; With Files From The Telegram And; Canwest News ServiceT. JOHN’S — The remaining seven victims of last week’s helicopter crash off the Newfoundland coast were returned to St. John’s early Tuesday morning, according to the RCMP.

Around 1 a.m., the seven bodies were unloaded from the Atlantic Osprey, a private ship which had led the recovery effort in recent days, in the harbour of the Newfoundland capital.

From there, the bodies were taken to a hospital where the province’s Chief Medical Examiner will perform autopsies to determine causes of death.

All of the 17 people killed in the Cougar Helicopters’ Sikorsky S-92 crash on Thursday have now been accounted for, said Sgt. Wayne Newell.

Newell said that despite the tragic circumstances, he was pleased that the recovery effort had proceeded quickly and smoothly. “It’s been a tremendous relief (for the families),” he said. “(The recovery operations) have gone better than expected. You never know if you’re going to find everyone.”

Newell said the process of extracting the bodies from the sunken wreckage was a tedious one. A remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, had to descend nearly 180 metres to the ocean floor.

Then, after a body was recovered from the crash, they were placed in a basket and raised to the surface.

Robert Decker, the sole survivor of the crash, was rescued Thursday. He has been recuperating in hospital where he is listed in critical but stable condition.

A funeral was held Monday in Fermeuse, N.L. for the first identified victim. Twenty-six-year-old Allison Maher of Aquaforte, N.L., was found dead shortly after the crash as well.

Six of the other 16 victims have been positively identified by their next of kin, said Newell, but he could not say which ones.

The 14 other identified victims who were aboard the helicopter were: Captain Matthew Davis, 34, of St. John’s; First Officer Tim Lanouette, 48, of Comox, B.C.; Thomas Anyll, 46, of Langley, B.C.; Peter Breen, 55, of St. John’s; Gary Corbett, 46, of Conception Bay South, N.L.; Wade Drake, 42, of Fortune, N.L., Wade Duggan, 32, of Witless Bay, N.L.; Colin Henley, 38, of St. John’s; Ken MacRae, 47, of Greenwood, N.S.; Derrick Mullowney, 51, of Bay Bulls, N.L.; Burch Nash, 44, of Fortune, N.L.; Paul Pike, 49, of Spaniard’s Bay, N.L.; Corey Eddy, 32, of Paradise, N.L.; and John Pelley, 41, of Deer Lake, N.L.

Two identities have not yet been released.

A memorial service is being planned for the victims on March 18 at a church in St. John’s.

The remains of the helicopter are to be lifted out later this week.

With files from Bradley Bouzane, St. John’s Telegram

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

[carholme]

TSB's lead man has just announced on CBC that the CVR/FDR components have been recovered and are on their way to Ottawa for analysis.

carholme

[CD]

Last words kept private, for now
Public must wait for cockpit recording, despite Supreme Court ruling

Peter Walsh
The Telegram
Last updated at 8:23 AM on 18/03/09

The content of the voice cockpit recorder recovered Tuesday from downed Cougar Helicopters Flight 491 is for investigators' ears only - despite a 2007 Supreme Court of Canada decision that said such information is public.

The Transportation Safety Board's (TSB) lead investigator, Mike Cunningham, refused a Telegram request for a copy of the cockpit-to-controller recording from the flight that claimed 17 lives last Thursday.

"During the course of an active investigation we don't release that kind of data. You'd have to go through (access to information)," Cunningham said. "Either that, or ask Nav Canada. Maybe they'd be good enough to provide that."

Nav Canada is the private company that operates air traffic control across the country. Nav Canada and the TSB fought - and lost - a nine-year court battle over the public release of cockpit-to-controller recordings.

Despite the Supreme Court ruling, Nav Canada said it won't release the tape.

"We don't release our communications between controllers and pilots," said Ron Singer, a Nav Canada spokesman.

"We are a private company. We are not a government agency. We're not a government department. We're not a Crown corporation. Any access to (the voice cockpit recording) would be through the TSB, and not Nav Canada. We are not subject to access to information laws."

Cunningham of the TSB said any release would have to wait until after the TSB investigation, which could take more than a year.

It's a touchy subject. For some, the last words spoken by pilots to ground control are nobody's business but the investigators'. To others, the recordings should be made public because they are crucial to understanding the tragedy, preventing future disasters and helping families cope with their grief. Even the families of previous crash victims have been divided over the question.

Appeal to commissioner

The issue landed in the lap of the Information Commissioner of Canada in 1998, when journalists covering different plane crashes coincidentally appealed to the commissioner over denials of voice cockpit recordings.

The TSB and Nav Canada fought release in the courts for nine years. But in 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada decided the public had a right to hear the recordings - partly because the cockpit transmissions are often recorded over the open airwaves by operators of privately owned scanners. The decision is considered a precedent. Immediately following that ruling, the recordings of Kelner Flight 151, which crashed near Clarenville in 1998, was released to The Telegram. So was the audio recording from the cockpit of Swissair Flight 111, which crashed into the ocean near Peggy's Cove, N.S. in 1998, killing 229 people. Initial denial of those recordings prompted the journalists' appeal to the information commissioner.

An official with the Information Commissioner's Office said Tuesday that TSB laws could allow it to delay release of the recording during an investigation, but that it should be released eventually.

Full article here...

[Widow]

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada Has Identified a Broken Main Gearbox Filter Bowl Assembly Mounting Stud on the Cougar Helicopter Sikorsky S92-A

By: Marketwire .
Mar. 20, 2009 02:56 PM


GATINEAU, QUEBEC -- (Marketwire) -- 03/20/09 -- Shortly after beginning the initial wreckage examination today, as part of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) investigation into the March 12, 2009 accident of a Cougar Helicopter Sikorsky S92-A off the coast of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, the TSB immediately informed Transport Canada (TC), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that they had found a broken main gearbox filter bowl assembly mounting stud.

On January 28, 2009, the manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation had issued an Alert Service Bulletin (ASB92-63-014) indicating that the main gearbox filter bowl assembly mounting titanium studs should be replaced with steel mounting studs. This one-time modification was to be accomplished within the next 1250 flight hours or within one year of the issue date of the ASB, whichever occurred first.

In light of TSB's discovery, the FAA will be issuing an emergency Airworthiness Directive stipulating that all operators of Sikorsky S92-A helicopters worldwide must install the improved studs in accordance with the existing ASB, before conducting any other flights.

Mike Cunningham, Investigator-in-Charge, will be available for comments in English by phone only between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Newfoundland and Labrador time.

Charles Laurence, Operations Team Lead, will be available for comments in French by phone only between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Newfoundland and Labrador time.

The TSB is an independent agency that investigates marine, pipeline, railway and aviation transportation occurrences. Its sole aim is the advancement of transportation safety. It is not the function of the Board to assign fault or determine civil or criminal liability.

http://au.sys-con.com/node/886599

Uh-oh.

[canwhitewolf]

quote from above
the TSB immediately informed Transport Canada (TC),
unquote

*******************************************************************

the TSB "generally do their job incredibly well then it gets to this stage with Transport Canada, is this where things fall down sometimes ?

there is this constant battle in the usa i believe in what NTSB says should be done and then what the FAA does about what they say should be done, and the time limit to do it

do we have this problem here in canada as well?

probably not worth asking the question i guess

[beaverbob]

Global news reported today that the FAA is not waiting for the Canadian TSB results and is issuing orders to replace all S96 transmissions.

Premature maybe?
Bob

[mulligan]

My wife and I went to Matt Davis' funeral today. The Cougar pilots all lined the aisle in the church and generally did their colleague proud. It was heart wrenching to see the young widow and her two kids but I think there is lots of family support. Matt was my wife's second cousin although she hadn't seen him since he was 12 years old. Still, it is very hard.
I live in YYT and this has hit very hard. It struck me today that for people my age memories of the Ocean Ranger have been resurected. They are never far away.
I don't know what the future holds for Cougar. I hope they are back at it soon, but not too soon. From my house downtown I've grown used to seeing the blue and white machines going and coming and I certainly notice their absence now. As a fellow pilot I extend my best wishes to everyone at Cougar during this difficult time.

[bubba070]

Global news reported today that the FAA is not waiting for the Canadian TSB results and is issuing orders to replace all S96 transmissions.

Premature maybe?
Bob

CBC report was saying there was titanium bold that broke. Sikorsky new there was a problem with the bolt and issued a service bulletin. The bolt was to be replaced with a steel one within the next year or 1200 flying hours. The FAA has grounded all S92 helicopters until the bolt has been changed.