BP yesterday suspended its use of three Super Puma helicopters operated by Bond as a major investigation was launched to discover why one of the company's aircraft, with 18 people on board, ditched into the North Sea.
All 16 passengers and two crew escaped injury in the incident involving the Bond-operated Eurocopters Super Puma E225, the most modern Super Puma, which plunged into waters near the BP oil platform 125 miles off the north-east coast on Wednesday evening.
Last night efforts to recover the helicopter, which is tethered to the Caledonian Vision, a regional support vessel, were suspended until today. The plan remains to winch it aboard a vessel and return it to the shore for detailed examination by a team from the Air Accident Investigation Branch and another from France where the aircraft was built.
A spokesman for Bond helicopters said the other two E225s in their fleet had been inspected, fully approved and certified to operate and the company had every confidence in the aircraft which were available to fly.
However, Bernard Looney, managing director of BP North Sea, said they had jointly taken a decision with Bond to suspend operations of the E225.
He said: "What happened was a very serious incident. Until we learn more, it seemed prudent to Bond and to ourselves to suspend the operation of that particular model.
"It in no way presupposes there is something wrong with the aircraft.
"I have no idea why that aircraft landed on the water. That is for the investigators.
"BP and Bond will make a joint decision when we know more and we feel it is safe to resume the operation of that flight and it won't happen a moment sooner."
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