The bulletin states that, “An initial visual inspection of the main gearbox has identified a 360° circumferential crack on the bevel gear vertical shaft, in the vicinity of the weld that joins the two sections. As a consequence of this failure, the main and standby oil pump gears ceased to be driven. During this inspection pump gears ceased to be driven. During this inspection it was observed that the lower part of the vertical shaft was displaced downwards by 6 mm.”

This preliminary engineering investigation is consistent with Bond Helicopters’ engineering analysis.

Bond Helicopters insists their maintenance procedures are of the highest standards with safety being the company’s principal concern at all times.  Bill Munro, Managing Director of Bond Offshore Helicopters said, ”The skill and training of Bond’s pilots has been witnessed at first hand. Our passengers can be confident in Bond as the principal crew change operator in the North Sea”.

In the light of the AAIB interim Service Bulletin Bond Offshore Helicopters Ltd. will continue the flight suspension of the EC225 and now in addition the AS332L2 helicopter. Bond Offshore Helicopters Ltd. is working with Eurocopter as a matter of priority in finding a solution that will enable the helicopters to be returned to service.

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- The U.K.’s main offshore workers’ union has called for all helicopters operated by Bond Aviation to be grounded pending an investigation into why an aircraft was forced to ditch into the North Sea earlier Thursday, and whether similar issues are affecting the rest of the fleet.

“While we are delighted that everyone on board is safe, there are obvious concerns when another Bond helicopter lands in the water,” said RMT OILC regional organizer Jake Molloy.

Thursday’s incident is the latest to affect a Eurocopter helicopter in the North Sea. Sixteen people died when a Bond Super Puma plunged into the sea while carrying men from BP PLC’s (BP, BP.LN) Miller platform to Aberdeen in April 2009. Earlier that year, 18 people survived after a Bond helicopter ditched in the North Sea.

Molloy said he had heard anecdotal reports from union members of helicopter problems that had occurred in recent weeks that he said hadn’t been reported to the Helicopter Safety Steering Group, which is part of the offshore workgroup comprising representatives from industry and the oil and gas workforce.

His concerns were echoed by fellow union Unite.

“Unite the Union is concerned that there have been problems with helicopter engines recently that haven’t been reported to the Helicopter Steering Group,” the union said in a statement. “Obviously the reason for the ditching has to be investigated, but Unite is calling for an urgent meeting of the Helicopter Steering Group to be convened.”

Bond Aviation said there were no plans to ground its fleet of Eurocopters, which are manufactured by a unit of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company NV (EAD.FR, EADSY).

“Right now, our priority is our passengers and pilots,” said a Bond spokesman. “Of course, we will checking with the helicopter manufacturer to better understand what has happened,” adding that the company implemented a strict maintenance program on its aircraft.

He wasn’t immediately able to confirm whether any engine incidents had occurred in recent weeks.

The helicopter that ditched Thursday had been ferrying workers to drilling rigs leased by ConocoPhillips (COP) on the Jasmine field.
The passengers were all third-party contractors and not ConocoPhillips employees, a ConocoPhillips spokesman said. The workers were bound for the Ensco 102 jack-up rig, owned by Ensco PLC (ESV), and the Maersk Resilient jack-up rig.

All 16 people onboard the helicopter are safe and accounted for, Grampian Police and the Coastguard have confirmed. A major rescue operation was launched after the aircraft, a Eurocopter EC225, descended into the sea around 25 miles off Aberdeen shortly after midday.

-By Alexis Flynn, Dow Jones Newswires

As offshore drilling operations reaching into deeper water, further from shore, the duration of helicopter flights also increases along with the risk that the weather might change during the flight to the rig. A new technology promises to increase the safety margin of longer flights and also help dispatchers plan around weather delays, but could it also lead to more flight cancelations?

Kongsberg Maritime’s new service will provide users of its Helideck Monitoring Systems (HMS) with live data on helideck conditions before the flight embarks for the platform. It can also monitor changing conditions on the rig providing helicopter dispatchers ashore the chance to abort flights that have already departed. The service, available on a yearly subscription basis, was developed to addresses new requirements of the Norwegian and UK Civil Aviation Authorities.

The Web HMS 100 service has been developed to assist helicopter operators to plan flights to offshore platforms and vessels prior to take-off from the heliport but, once the service is activated on an HMS 100 installation, other key stakeholders can view the data including Rescue Coordination Centres, lease holders and the ship management company. The live data from the HMS 100 installation is displayed in a user-friendly text and/or graphical formatand can be accessed from any web browser.

“Although the new Web HMS 100 system introduces new operational capabilities as it can provide data to the helicopter land-base so operators are fully aware of conditions at the flight destination before it even leaves, it is also linked to the forthcoming regulations as the availability of the data can eliminate the need for a separate Rig Report to be submitted, which is a requirement under the new, incoming regulations,” explains Vidar Bjørkedal, VP Sales & Customer Support Kongsberg.

The Kongsberg HMS 100  provides accurate data by integrating with a variety of other meteorological sensors including humidity, wind speed and direction, and barometric pressure but, at the heart of the system is a motion reference unit MRU that directly measures key movement characteristics such as alongships (pitch), athwartships (maximum roll), vertical movement (maximum heave), heave period and max average heave rate. The unit can be installed at the helideck, on the bridge or at any other suitable location on the vessel, the lever arm software makes it possible for the operator to set up the measuring point to be precisely at the centre of the helideck.

Kongsberg MRU-E

While the company has offered advanced helicopter monitoring software since 2004 and web based monitoring since 2010, the technology continues to improve. New to the system is the Kongsberg MRU 3, an upgraded reference unit designed for roll, pitch and heave compensation applications including real-time heave compensation of echo sounders during helicopter operations, surveys and other activities including the use of active heave compensation of offshore cranes. The MRU 3 provides heave measurements to meet IHO standards ensuring that echo sounder data is highly accurate pre and post processing, whilst offshore crane safety and efficiency can be also be improved. The MRU 3 achieves high reliability by using solid state sensors with no rotational or mechanical parts.

A second new model, the MRU E, is specially designed for use in marine applications that require an extended temperature range. It can operate at ambient temperatures from -25 to +70°C and can be installed on open decks, inside cabinets or on bulkheads. Typical applications include direct mounting under the helideck centre to measure 3-axes linear accelerations together with roll, pitch and heave. Because of the extended temperature range of the MRU E, no additional enclosure or cabinet is required and the system meets Helideck Certification Agency (HCA) allowing it to be used in Arctic and other extreem weather environments.

Both new MRUs accept input of external speed and heading information on separate serial lines or Ethernet for improved accuracy in heave, roll and pitch during turns and accelerations.

An expert in deepwater operations tells gCaptain, “It’s too early to tell the impact of these units on crew changes but if more flights are canceled due to dangerous conditions then I believe most rig workers will welcome the delays.”

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class James R. Evans)

PACIFIC OCEAN –  An MH-60S Knight Hawk assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 23 passes the guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) while delivering supplies to aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) during a vertical replenishment with fast combat support ship USNS Bridge (T-AOE 10).  Carl Vinson and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17 are deployed in the Western Pacific.

The MH-60s is a Sikorsky helicopter designed to conduct vertical replenishment, special warfare support, personnel transfer, and anti-mine countermeasures.

1. The helicopter pilot is bad ass and;
2. It was released by Prism Defence, an Australian-owned company that specializes in ship helicopter integration.

Actually through some research we found out that the video is presumably taken during system testing aboard the HDMS Ejnar Mikkelsen, a Royal Danish Navy patrol vessel.  Check it out.

Click here to view the embedded video.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones)–Brazilian state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR, PETR4.BR), or Petrobras, said early Sunday that rescuers had located the body of the fourth person who died in a helicopter crash in the Atlantic Ocean off the country’s southeast coast.

Divers are working to recover the bodies of the four men, although rough seas were hindering rescue efforts, Petrobras said. The helicopter and three bodies were located Saturday on the seabed some 100 kilometers off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state in southeast Brazil.

On Friday evening, helicopter pilot Rommel Oliveira Garcia contacted air-traffic control in Macae, an oil-industry hub in the north of the state, to say he was making an emergency landing at sea.

The helicopter, an AgustaWestland AW139, had departed from the P-65 oil rig around 5 p.m. local time on Friday. The P-65 platform operates in the Enchova field, one of the first fields developed by Petrobras in the prolific Campos Basin.

Search-and-rescue operations then started in coordination with the Brazilian air force and navy, together with Petrobras’ own aircraft and ships.

The co-pilot’s name hasn’t been divulged at the request of the family. The passengers were Ricardo Leal de Oliveira, employed by the Engevix engineering firm, and Joao Carlos Pereira da Silva, of Brasitest, which carries out quality-control tests.

The helicopter belongs to the Senior Taxi Aereo company, and was being operated on behalf of Petrobras. On Saturday, Petrobras prohibited the use of the AgustaWestland AW139 helicopter for company related flights. A company spokesman said that it was unclear how long the ban would be in effect.

-By Jeff Fick, Dow Jones Newswires, Matthew Cowley in Sao Paulo contributed to this article.

The search had been suspended overnight but restarted at first light on Saturday, the Brazilian air force said in a statement.

The helicopter ditched in the sea after the pilot reported an emergency to air traffic control in Macae, an oil-industry hub in the north of the state, the air force said.

The helicopter had departed from the P-65 oil rig at around 5 p.m. local time on Friday, the air force said. The P-65 platform operates in the Enchova field, one of the first fields developed by the government-run oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4.BR, PBR), in the prolific Campos Basin.

One air force plane and one navy plane joined with aircraft and ships of Petrobras to hunt for the helicopter and any survivors.

Petrobras said there were two crew members and two passengers aboard. The pilot was Rommel Oliveira Garcia, but the co-pilot’s name hasn’t been divulged at the request of the family.

The passengers were Ricardo Leal de Oliveira, employed by the Engevix engineering firm, and Joao Carlos Pereira da Silva, of Brasitest, which carries out quality control tests.

The helicopter belongs to the Senior air taxi company, and was being operated on behalf of Petrobras.

-By Matthew Cowley, Dow Jones Newswires

Rescue helicopter Lifeguard 907 (a Sikorsky S-76) is hovering behind the relics of an old cargo vessel at northern Fårö, Sweden. Stranded shipwrecks are a very rare sight in the country, but this one is an interesting exception.

The year was 1968 and the 51 year old German freighter MF Fortuna was headed southbound with a crew of five when she struck bad weather. The crew tried to find lee behind the Norsholmen islet, but ran heavily aground. The waves swelled the deck and the crew struggled to launch the lifeboat, but the ship rocked too violently and the lifeboat became flooded by water.
At half past three on the morning of October 28th a witness on dry land saw some distant emergency flares and made the crucial distress call. A military rescue helicopter was launched instantly and it managed to salvage all five people onboard within an hour.

The most of MF Fortuna has now been swallowed by nature, 40 years later, but the bow still remains. She sits on the shallow shores of Norsholmen, in the middle of the Baltic Sea, and waits for nature to take the rest of her back.

Seems like Fortuna was kind of an unfortunate name for this ship….

gCaptain’s photo of the week is a helicopter shot of LNG Tanker Lokoja (IMO# 9269960). Built by the Korean shipyard Daewoo in 2006 she is owned by BW Gas and chartered to Suez LNG.

What makes this the photo of the week is both the amazing perspective and the photographer himself. gCaptain believes every mariner has a specialty, hobby or interest that makes him unique and we love to showcase their work. This is a great example because, like our friend OneEighteen’s best work, Carlos Ferreira, the photographer, took this shot while performing his everyday duties at sea. Carlos also happens to have a day job that every mariner deeply appreciates, Rescue Captain aboard Spain’s Rescue Helicopter “Pesca 2″.

For more of Carlos’ amazing photos CLICK HERE.