Oil workers refusing to fly on Bond helicopters after North Sea ditching

Oil workers are refusing to fly on the helicopters affected after last week’s Super Puma ditching in the North Sea.

A meeting has been held between offshore worker unions, North Sea oil industry employers, safety experts and the main helicopter operators in Aberdeen.

On Thursday, a Bond helicopter carrying 12 workers to an offshore platform plunged into the North Sea in what was described as a “controlled ditching”.

The EC225 model aircraft was forced to ditch in rough seas, around 28 miles from Aberdeen. The crew and passengers were all safely rescued and two passengers were treated for minor injuries.

The operator of the Super Puma, Bond Aviation, has grounded its entire Aberdeen-based fleet as a precaution, pending a fuller investigation into the accident. Around 100 flights a week are affected. Bond has said it is waiting to hear from regulators and will make a decision then.

Jake Molloy, of the RMT Union, said he had been contacted by a few workers who are refusing to fly on Bond helicopters or make the journey offshore. He added that they would be supported by the union.

He said: “There is obvious concern from our workers. There are a lot of issues surfacing that had not previously come to our attention and we want to instil confidence back in our workforce.”

He added that at the moment many of the concerns were centred on Bond.

The meeting was set to go over a report which found a crack in the main gearbox shaft which caused the lubrication system to fail.

In 2009, a Super Puma crashed in the North Sea killing all 16 passengers and crew. The fatal crash was blamed on a "catastrophic failure" of the aircraft’s gearbox.

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