Paphos People

Hi all, Just wondering if 'Paramed' John is OK, and if he was anywhere near the 'Ditched Heli' of Aberdeen. I know he travels back & forth to Paphos around thee weekly cycles.

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Mal

Thanks for worrying, I am back in one piece, it was north of us, back in Paphos late last night

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John

In Arduis Fidelis

I must admit
He was the first person I thought of when
I saw it on the news this morning..

glad you are ok John ..
but then you being a paramed , If it had been you
then you could have assisted yourself ..

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REACH 1000`s of PAPHOS CUSTOMERS EVERY DAY FOR A FRACTION OF WHAT THE OTHERS CHARGE
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Whilst the optimist and the pessimist argued that the whisky glass was either half full
or half empty ? .
I drank it .....
The opportunist..

Glad you are safe John.

Tiggy

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Life is what you make it.

Helen

Glad you are ok John. I thought of you as well when I first heard it on the radio on the way to work.

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Lyn

Tough times dont last long but tough people do

Looked out for you on the TV news glad we didn't see you.

John

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John S

Long episode on news tonight and glad everyone safe

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Life is short! Break the rules! Forgive quickly!
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I just thank god everyone is safe and sound.

Jan

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ALWAYS MOVE FORWARD

What do you expect John, you were watching Crimewatch.....

Welcome back paramed. Just proves all that training so many of your co workers see as a chore or another bliddy course, actually can be very relevant. Hopefully we wont see another accident (we will, its inevitable), but maybe lessons will have been learned.

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Straight talking, no Gimmicks.

Live your dreams.

I also thought of John and also Graham who works with helicopters I think around that area.

Thank God that they and all the others got back safely. Must have been very scary for them all.


Jan

We will get a report eventually, so can let you all know what happened

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John

In Arduis Fidelis

So glad to hear every one is safe I think the pilot did a good job landing belly flap it could so easy have been a disaster. I salute those who work on these rigs its such a dangerous job. Marj

Or 'FLOP' Marg

No 'Flap' caused good 'Flop'

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Mal

Thanks for all your thoughts, as John says we will get a report eventually once the investigation is underway. As also should be said, the pilots did a great job in bringing the aircraft down safely in a controlled descent and thus landing safely on the water. Fortunately for all concerned, the weather conditions were not too bad that there was a capsize of the aircraft, which can occur if the sea state were any rougher. These helicopters are top heavy with the engines on top, which adds to the likelyhood of a capsize.

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Graham

The best mind-altering drug is truth.

When the news broke on Sky, Paramed was in our thoughts, even though we have never met him. Rach, our daughter, had earlier come in and succesfully completed a two day first aid course for sports clubs. I said to her, "Paramed would be proud of you" and then I turned on Sky News and the breaking news was the helicopter crash.

Or even MARJ not MarG just a slip of the key me thinks

The latest news is that the aircraft has been recovered and on the way to Farborough where the investigation will be carried out.

For those interested, as the flight was 550 yds from the platform they would already be under the Radio watch from there.

Normal ,routine the pilot calls on logistics frequency, perhaps up to 30 minutes from destination, he will ask for weather update and return load, ie passengers, bags weight any freight, he then calculates how much fuel is required for the return trip if any of course.
Maybe 10 minutes out he will call on the Traffic frequency and ask the platform radio op to take the 'Flight Watch' he then passes his distance from Aberdeen, ETA, radio, flight level, total on board and endurance, which is flying time on present fuel load, radio op takes the watch and listens out for any further messages.

On final approach he will ask the Landing officer if the heli deck is available to land, and if so comes in.

There is a stand by boat 24/7, his job is to pick up survivors if there is an accident.

A statement from one passenger/survivor said there was a jolt/impact felt before it went down in the sea, if I had to guess it sounds like the gear box collapsed, two engines only one box, that is only my guess, as there was no comment from radio room, helideck crew who would have been watching, may have been the first to raise the alarm.

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John

In Arduis Fidelis

Lets hope for a thorough and inexhaustive investigation.

Its good (obviously) when an accident happens and noone is hurt and the evidence is intact as this will allow a proper investigation with minimal corruption of evidence.

Then any improvements and/or alterations to design, maintenence, flightprogrammes and passenger training can be implimented.

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Straight talking, no Gimmicks.

Live your dreams.

Thanks for the up date John. The engineers will have a reasonable idea what caused the problem. If it was 'Major' they will have 'grounded' that type Heli till all 'fault' items have been inspected and rectified.

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Mal

Investigators search for tail of helicopter that ditched in seaEfforts to find the tail of the helicopter that ditched into the North Sea with 18 people on board are continuing, accident investigators said yesterday.

The main body of the helicopter was taken back to Aberdeen by boat late on Saturday night.

The fuselage was recovered from the water on Saturday and will be taken to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) facility in Farnborough today.

advertisementAn AAIB spokesman said yesterday: "Operations to recover the tail of the helicopter are continuing." Sixteen passengers and two crew had to be rescued after the Super Puma helicopter ditched near a BP installation around 125 miles east of Aberdeen on Wednesday night.

The AAIB spokesman said the fuselage had been "successfully recovered" and had arrived back in Aberdeen at 10.30pm on Saturday.

He added yesterday: "The fuselage will be transported to Farnborough on Monday so that investigations can continue."

The spokesman said: "We are not able to comment on the cause of the accident until the investigation has been completed."

A spokesman for operator Bond Offshore said yesterday: "The successful recovery of the fuselage is excellent news and it will greatly assist the AAIB in identifying the cause of the incident."

The AAIB has launched an investigation into what went wrong and has sent a team to Aberdeen.

Workers on the BP installation raised the alarm after they saw the aircraft hit the water around 550 yards from the Etap oil and gas production platform at about 6.40pm on Wednesday .

A major rescue operation was launched involving an RAF Nimrod, RAF Sea King, civilian aircraft and boats.

The 18 people on the Super Puma helicopter escaped on to rubber liferafts and waited for help to arrive. Three people were eventually winched to safety by a Bond rescue helicopter which arrived 40 minutes after the accident, while the other 15 passengers were later recovered by a platform lifeboat and transferred to the Caledonia Victory, which made for Aberdeen.

BP suspended the use of Super Puma helicopters from Bond for North Sea flights on Thursday "as a precaution".

A spokesman for Bond said that, after the ditching of the EC225 helicopter, its other two helicopters of the same type were checked on Thursday and remained operational.

This is the latest from the Glesga Herald

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Graham

The best mind-altering drug is truth.

From BBC Scotland news
The missing tail section was brought into Aberdeen by ship


The black box flight recorder and missing tail section of the helicopter which ditched in the North Sea have been brought ashore in Aberdeen.

They were found on Monday afternoon and are being taken to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) in Farnborough for examination.

Investigators hope the wreckage will give them some indication as to the cause of the ditching.

All 18 people onboard the Super Puma survived the incident.

The helicopter's fuselage was recovered at the weekend.

The aircraft, which was operated by Bond Offshore, came down about 125 miles east of Aberdeen last Wednesday.

Workers on the BP oil platform which should have been the flight's destination saw the helicopter ditch.

Those on board have praised the crew and their rescuers.

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Graham

The best mind-altering drug is truth.

Looking at that pic Graham it looks like 'metal fatigue' Pilot done a great job to Auto rotate for landing with out Tail rotor. Noticed, looked like all main rotor blades were still attached and stationery from a dark pic taken from rescue heli. All will be revealed in time from AAIB.

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Mal

Mal I hope it's not metal fatigue, although you could be right. These aircraft are not old, in fact G-REDU was only delivered to Bond approx spring 2008. If the tail detached prior to landing on the water, the pilots did a remarkable job of holding it together. As you say once the CAA have all the facts an announcement will be made.

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Graham

The best mind-altering drug is truth.