BEVERLY HILLS, February 15, (THEWILL) – More facts have emerged regarding the ill-fated Bristow Helicopter as the Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB, has revealed that the pilot called for help twice before the chopper crashed into the ocean on Wednesday, February 3, with all the eleven passengers rescued alive.
Disclosing this at the AIB headquarters in the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos, AIB Commissioner, Mr. Felix Abali revealed that the first call for help was declared by the crew at the 78 Nautical Miles from Lagos when the pilot complained of instrument problems.
Abali added that “The pilot again called for help from the Radio Operator at the offshore platform, which was relayed by two separate aircraft. One aircraft was following the communication and relayed the ditching, which occurred at 10:20am at 29 Nautical Miles away from the platform.”
While pointing out that the aircraft descended from 3,000 feet to 1,500 feet noting that at that time, it was the Flying Officer, FO, who was the Pilot Flying, PF, he said, “The Captain took over control expecting to stabilize the helicopter but the aircraft was not responding to control inputs.
The AIB Commissioner pledged that the bureau will send some of the black boxes abroad to determine the actual cause of the crash, stressing that a thorough investigation was on-going to determine the actual cause of the crash.
He promised that the black boxes would be sent outside the country because the AIB equipment at its laboratory in Abuja could not download one of the black boxes.
His words, “The black boxes will be flown outside the country especially one of the boxes that we have is Cockpit Image Recorders, and these boxes, unfortunately, we do not have the equipment to download them here. We are taking them to the United Kingdom, UK, Essential flight recorders will be flown out for downloading while TRIM actuators will be sent to the manufacturers for investigative testing.
“Initial field investigation was carried out by the Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB and vital components relevant to the investigation including Flight Data Recorder FDR/Cockpit Voice Recorder, CVR and the Cockpit Image Recorder, CIR, were retrieved for further investigation,” Abali stated.
