Source: http://www.theborneopost.com/?p=12859
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Chopper crash-lands at sea
Nine survivors picked out of stormy waters; search and rescue ops continues for missing contract staff
MIRI: One passenger was reported missing after a Super Puma L-2 helicopter crash-landed in the stormy South China Sea about 80 km from Bintulu yesterday afternoon.
The Super Puma L-2 belonging to Malaysian Helicopter Services (MHS) was carrying eight offshore crews and two pilots in Bintulu waters when it went down at about 2.30 pm in the waters between D-35 and Bayan platform.
Six were Carigalis employees while the other two were contract staff seconded to Carigali, one of whom was still missing at press time.
The missing passenger was identified as Irwan Faslas Saini in his 20s from Kuala Baram, Miri.
The aircraft remained floating, secured by a standby vessel after the crash near D18 platform. This was in contrast to the last incident where the aircraft sank within minutes near D11 in Bintulu waters.
Yesterdays crash-landing in the sea is the third for a Super Puma helicopter since 2005. The helicopter was used to provide transport service for oil exploration companies in the country.
According to sources, nine of the survivors were in an inflatable dinghy when plucked out of the churning waters by a standby boat from the nearby platform which spotted them about the same time a SAR Sikorsky-AS 92 helicopter, mounted after the SOS was received by Shell Emergency Response Centre, came upon them.
The rescue boat tried to berth at the platform but was unsuccessful after several attempts, due to the rough sea conditions, forcing it to head to Bintulu with the rescued victims.
Standby rescue boats could not be dispatched to the scene due to rough sea conditions. The survivors had to be lifted up by a hovering Sikorsky-AS 92 helicopter, which first spotted them.
The two-pilot rotary rescue aircraft picked up the workers for the offshore rigs around D-35 and Bayan platform, operated by Carigali Petronas. They were flown to Bintulu hospital for examination and treatment.
On June 18, 2005 an MHS Super Puma carrying 11 workers from Shell and its contractors plunged into the sea within visible distance of an offshore gas production platform (B11) in Bintulu waters at noon.
Yesterdays incident was eerily similar to a second incident on Nov 5, 2006 involving an MHS Super Puma helicopter carrying ExxonMobil employees that went down while flying to an oil rig in the waters off Terengganu.
The aircraft crash-landed at 11.40 am in the South China Sea, about 103 nautical miles off Dungun and about 200 metres short of its destination, ExxonMobils Tapis B platform.
It was descending towards the platforms helipad but the experienced pilots averted a catastrophic crash by diverting the failing aircraft away from the platform into safer waters.
[i]Meanwhile, in a press statement issued in Kuala Lumpur on the incident, Petronas confirmed the incident.
The statement by its head of media relations Azman Ibrahim said the incident occurred at 2.30 pm while departing from an offshore platform en route to another platform, and that nine persons including the two pilots had been rescued while another person was still missing.
The search and rescue operation was ongoing at press time and Petronas would release more information as the details came.
The press in Miri was given the runaround by the management of Carigali and MHS here, being kept out of the office and told there would be a press conference, which did not materialise. They were locked out together with family members of the victims and were only allowed in much later.
Deputy Miri OCPD Supt Abang Abdillah Abang Othman confirmed that Miri Police had been informed of the incident. [/i]
