SAHARA REPORTERS
A Sikorsky SK76c helicopter with registration number 5N-BQG which crashed recently close to Port Harcourt, Rivers State was presumed scrapped in 2018, investigations by SaharaReporters have revealed.
The helicopter, operated by EastWind Aviation, was transporting contract staff members to the FPSO—NUIMS ANTAN facility when it tragically crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.
The tragedy occurred off the coast of Bonny Finima on Thursday.
The helicopter with manufacturer’s serial number (MSN) 760486 was manufactured in 1997.
Checks by SaharaReporters revealed that the helicopter was first delivered to Helikopter Service as SE-JFB.
It was then bought by another aviation company in Hong Kong and registered as B-KCR. In 2004, the helicopter was bought by a Nigerian airline, Aero Contractors and registered as 5N-BGN.
In 2009, CHC Global Ops in Canada bought the chopper from Aero Contractors, registering it as C-FXXV. It was outsourced to Premiair, an aviation services and aircraft management operator based in Indonesia between June 2011 and July 2013.
The helicopter was then taken back by CHC Global Ops, a Canadian aviation company, maintaining the same registration number, C-FXXV.
According to Flickr, an online community founded in Canada, the chopper registration number was cancelled in September 2018 after it was “presumably scrapped.”
Scrapped helicopters refer to aircraft that have been permanently retired from service and deemed unusable.
These helicopters are no longer operational due to various factors, including age and obsolescence, excessive maintenance costs, loss or revocation of Type Certificate, unavailability of spare parts, damage from accidents, transportation, or maintenance incidents and weather-related damage or vandalism.
As a result, scrapped helicopters are not expected to return to operational status and are typically sold for salvage or dismantled for parts.
How the Sikorsky SK76c helicopter was moved to Nigeria and registered as 5N-BQG before it crashed on Thursday could not be verified by SaharaReporters.
On Saturday, the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) said it was working to deploy Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) equipped to operate at depths of up to 1,000 meters for underwater search of the black box and other critical components from the wreckage of the helicopter.
A statement by Mrs Bimbo Olawumi Oladeji, NSIB Director of Public Affairs and Family Assistance explained the recovery operation and investigation being carried out by the agency into the crash.
NSIB said it was still searching for critical components like “black box, Flight Data Recorder (FDR), or Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR)”.
On Sunday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) said that five persons were still missing, insisting that only three bodies had been recovered since the incident occurred on Thursday.
According to Wikipedia, six Sikorsky S-76 choppers crashed between 2002 and 2020.
On 17 July 2002, S-76A G-BJVX, operated by Bristow Helicopters, crashed into the North Sea due to the failure of a main rotor blade.
On 10 August 2005, a Sikorsky S-76C+ flying Copterline Flight 103 crashed into Tallinn Bay in the Gulf of Finland. The cause was a failure of the hydraulic flight control system.
On 31 May 2013, an S-76A air ambulance, operated by Ornge, crashed near Moosonee Airport, Canada. The cause was inadequate training of pilots for night-time operations.
On 10 March 2017, S-76C++ TC-HEZ, operated by Swan Aviation, crashed during a private charter flight in Istanbul, Turkey. The cause is unknown, but poor visibility conditions were present at the time.
On 26 January 2020, S-76B N72EX crashed in Calabasas, California, killing all nine occupants, including the retired professional basketball player Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna.
The cause was determined to be the pilot Ara Zobayan experiencing spatial disorientation due to heavy fog, as well as pilot error.
On 16 September 2020, an S-76A air ambulance of the Philippine Air Force crashed in Basilan Province in Southern Philippines during bad weather conditions, killing all four military crew members onboard.
