Super Pumas suspension reviewed

Offshore industry leaders are to reconvene to review the suspension of Super Puma flights after last week's fatal helicopter crash.

A meeting of the industry's Helicopter Safety Steering Group (HSSG) was adjourned on Wednesday without reaching a decision on when the helicopters can return to the air.

Representatives from operators, trade unions and regulators will gather in Aberdeen to discuss the issue again.

Four oil workers were killed when a Super Puma AS332 L2 travelling from the Borgsten Dolphin support vessel came down off the southern tip of Shetland on Friday with 16 passengers and two crew on board.

The crash was the fifth incident involving Super Pumas in the North Sea since 2009.

CHC has temporarily suspended all flights of the three types of Super Puma helicopter that it operates - the L, L2 and EC225.

Fellow operators Bond Offshore Helicopters and Bristow also enforced a temporary suspension of all Super Puma flights except emergency rescue missions, in the wake of a recommendation by the HSSG.

The freeze on using the helicopter type is causing disruption to the movement of workers both on and off shore. The Super Puma is said to make up about half of the UK offshore industry's 75-strong helicopter fleet. Different aircraft models and alternative methods of transport, such as boats, are being used or looked at to transport people on and off North Sea platforms.

Union officials have said that the return of Super Pumas to the skies cannot be backed until the cause of the crash is known. Confidence in the aircraft type had been ''shattered'' and there was ''anger and fear'' among the workforce, Unite Scottish Secretary Pat Rafferty said.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) also called for safety improvements at a rally in Aberdeen. General secretary Bob Crow said lessons must be learned from the crash.