Old Photograph Chinook Helicopter Flying Over Aberdeenshire Scotland

Old photograph of a Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter flying over Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This helicopter was normally based at Aberdeen Airport but had been based at Sumburgh Airport since 3 November 1986 to operate a shuttle service from the Brent oilfield in the East Shetland Basin. On 6 November the first flight was delayed due to an oil leak from an engine gearbox that was soon rectified and the aircraft left Sumburgh at 08:58 with 40 passengers for the Brent Oil Field. The aircraft visited three platforms with exchanges of freight and passengers then departed Brent Platform C at 10:22 with 44 passengers on board for return to Sumburgh Airport. It transited at a height of 2,500 feet, and as it approached Sumburgh it was cleared to descend to 1,000 feet. Reporting 4.5 miles from the airfield, the controller cleared it to land on helicopter runway 24. Nothing else was heard. The helicopter had hit the sea, broke up and sank. A Coastguard search and rescue helicopter which had just departed Sumburgh Airport reported liferafts in the sea. It then observed a survivor clinging to a substantial piece of wreckage. While they winched the man on board another survivor was noted amongst the floating bodies. With no signs of other survivors the Coastguard helicopter flew the survivors to Lerwick for transfer to hospital. An air and sea search failed to find any more survivors but all the floating bodies were recovered and brought to the airport. There was loss of 43 passengers and two crew members. The accident was caused by the failure of a modified bevel ring gear in the forward transmission which allowed the twin rotors to collide when synchronisation was lost. The AAIB stated that the underlying causes were the inadequacy of a previously accepted test program and the failure of a stringent inspection programme.



Tour Scotland video of old photographs of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The traditional industries here were fishing, papermaking, shipbuilding, and textiles Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.

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