Chopper Rescue Helped by Training, Equipment

EDINBURGH, Scotland -- Tough training and an airbag-like flotation system helped save the 18 people caught aboard the Super Puma helicopter that crashed into the North Sea, a union official and safety experts said Thursday.

The measures -- introduced after a spate of fatal helicopter crashes in the area -- include mandatory evacuation drills for all workers and the wearing of immersion suits and life vests in flight.

"When something like this happens, the training just kicks in. You remember the drill to evacuate, you are wearing a survival suit and you just get on with it," says Jake Molloy, a spokesman for the Oilc union. "The training stays with you forever, you don't forget stuff that will save your life."

Helicopters have been used to ferry workers to and from the oil and gas fields off the Scottish coast since the construction of platforms there in the 1970s. Thousands of helicopters make the trip every year, and Aberdeen's heliport is among the busiest in the world.

Safety was spotty until a number of deadly accidents in the 1980s -- a Chinook crash in 1986 claimed the lives of 45 people -- prompted changes to the way people were carried to the sites.

All North Sea offshore workers are now required to undergo training at a Petrofac Training facility just south of Aberdeen. The program includes ditching and sinking in simulated conditions in the company's massive water tank.

The course is "pretty intense," says Gordon Caird, Petrofac's regional manager. "It includes evacuation from a submerged helicopter on to life rafts we call heli-rafts."

The Super Puma helicopter involved in Wednesday's crash landed upright in the water, deploying flotation devices that opened like car air bags when the helicopter hit. The devices, installed over the last 15 years, gave the crew time to escape onto life rafts.

Michael Coull, an Aberdeen Coastguard spokesman, says the men scrambled from the aircraft onto two life rafts. They tied the rafts together, activated homing beacons, fired flares, and waited for rescue vessels and helicopters.

Nine investigators from the British government's Air Accident Investigation Branch arrived in Aberdeen on Thursday to determine the cause of the crash.

Meanwhile energy company BP PLC said it was suspending the use of Bond Offshore Helicopters Ltd.'s Super Pumas as a precautionary measure.

Jim Ferguson, an Aberdeen-based aviation expert, says he could not say what had happened, but notes that a tail piece from the aircraft appeared to be missing.

"We need to see if the tail came off before it ditched or as it ditched. That is vital to understanding what happened," he says.