At least three people are dead after a Sikorsky S76 helicopter crashed carrying oil workers in Nigeria.
According to a statement from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), the company lost contact with the helicopter on 24 October at around 11:22am local time.
The helicopter was operated by East Winds Aviation and engaged by NNPC to take passengers from the Port Harcourt Nigerian Airfoce Base to the Nuims Antan FPSO off Calabar.
Eight people were on board the Sikorsky S76 model helicopter, six passengers and two crew members.
“The appropriate authorities have been contacted, including the Ministry of Aviation. Search and rescue missions are currently ongoing. So far, three bodies have been recovered,” an NNPC statement read.
“We shall continue to monitor the situation and provide regular updates as the events unfold,” it added.
East Winds Aviation said in a statement “Upon receiving this information, our emergency response team was convened immediately, and search and rescue mobilised to the scene, and these remain active at the time of this press release.”
It noted that identification procedures are ongoing on the recovered bodies.
A statement from the Nigerian Ministry of Aviation added that no emergency locator transmitter (ELT) signal was received, but “manual efforts to plot the location of the accident are underway, and all available resources, including the military and low-flying aircraft, have been deployed to assist in locating and rescuing any survivor(s)”.
The helicopter held the registration number 5NBQG.
Another Sikorsky helicopter, the S-92, was involved in a fatal crash offshore Norway this year, with the autopilot system identified as a factor in the accident.
This led unions to highlight that concerns among offshore oil and gas workers about the safety of North Sea helicopter flights.
Unions have also called for a “plan B for helicopter traffic” in the wake of the Sikorsky S-92 accident.
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