Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma - Notable Accidents and Incidents

Notable Accidents and Incidents

• 14 March 1992 - G-TIGH lost control and crashed into the North Sea near East Shetland Basin. 11 of the 17 passengers and crew died.
• 19 January 1995 - G-TIGK Operated by Bristow Helicopters ditched in the North Sea. No Fatalities. Aircraft lost.
• 8 September 1997 - LN-OPG, an AS332 L1 operated by Helikopter Service AS from Brønnøysund to the Norne oil field suffered a catastrophic main gearbox failure and crashed, killing all 12 aboard. Eurocopter accepted some but not all of the AAIB/N recommendations.
• 11 July 2000 - an HKP-10 Super Puma from the Swedish armed forces crashed into a cliffside in the Kebnekaise mountains during an alpine rescue. All three crewmen aboard died, and the aircraft was totally destroyed.
• 18 November 2003 - an HKP-10 Super Puma from the Swedish armed forces crashed during night time sea rescue exercises. Six out of the seven onboard died. SSRS Märta Collin, the boat conducting the excersise, rescued the lone survivor from the jet fuel soaked sea.
• 21 November 2006 - A Eurocopter AS332 L2 search and rescue helicopter ditched in the North Sea. The aircraft was equipped with two automatic inflatable life rafts, but both failed to inflate. The Dutch Safety Board afterwards issued a warning.
• 18 February 2009 - The helicopter was approaching its destination, the ETAP oil production platform located 132 nm east of Aberdeen, at night, when it was seen by observers on the platform to strike the surface of the sea.
• 1 April 2009 - G-REDL an AS332L2 belonging to Bond Offshore Helicopters with 16 people on board, crashed into the North Sea 13 miles (21 km) off Crimond on the Aberdeenshire coast. There were no survivors. The AAIB's initial report found that the crash was caused by a "catastrophic failure" in the aircraft's main rotor gearbox epicyclic module (see April 2009 North Sea helicopter crash).
• 11 November 2011 - XC-UHP AS332-L Super Puma of Mexico's General Coordination of the Presidential Air Transport Unit crashed in the Amecameca region south of Mexico City. Mexico's Secretary of the Interior Francisco Blake Mora died in this accident along with 7 other crew and passengers.
• 28 March 2012 - A Super Puma helicopter belonging to the Venezuelan Air Force crashed near the Colombian border killing all seven crew members on board, according to BBC News. The incident happen during anti-drug operations in the Venezuelan state of Apure.
• 10 May 2012 The crew of the helicopter carried out a controlled ditching following indications of a failure of the main gearbox (MGB) lubrication system and, subsequently, a warning indicating failure of the emergency lubrication system.
• 22 October 2012 The pilot put the aircraft down after systems warned there was a problem with the gearbox oil and lubrication. The same warning forced the crew of another EC225 Super Puma to ditch about 30 miles off the coast of Aberdeen in May.