A SENIOR engineer has cast doubt on the accuracy of the log charting work carried out on the Super Puma involved in the 2009 North Sea helicopter disaster.
Sixteen men – two pilots and 14 passengers – died when Flight 85N fell into the water “like a torpedo” en route to Aberdeen.
The fatal accident inquiry into their deaths has already heard that additional inspections were ordered on the AS332 L2 after a magnetic particle was found in its gearbox just a week before the fatal crash on April 1, 2009.
On day four of the inquiry at the Town House in Aberdeen yesterday, operator Bond’s former engineering director admitted it would have been “very tight” for the extra checks to have been carried out in addition to the routine pre-flight inspection in the 10 minutes recorded in the log.
James Gilmour, who is now an aviation consultant, questioned how the aircraft could also have been refuelled in that timescale, and said he would have expected that alone to take 15-20minutes.
The helicopter was used for a three-legged journey on the day before the crash, going to the Everest and Andrew platforms before returning to Aberdeen.
Solicitor advocate Tom Marshall, who is representing 13 of the victims’ families, took Mr Gilmour through the maintenance logs in detail before asking if a 10-minute timeframe for all the works was “feasible”.
Mr Gilmour initially suggested there may have been more than one person working on the aircraft at the time.
He said: “It’s feasible as there was maybe more than one engineer involved in doing the magnetic chip and one or two involved in the pre-flight inspections.”
The additional inspection required engineers to visually check the aircraft’s magnetic chip plug at every shutdown for the next 25 flying hours.
“That will take less than five minutes,” Mr Gilmour told the court.
“It’s a visual inspection of the element, not a full check of the electrical systems.”
However, when pressed by Sheriff Principal Derek Pyle, the 57-year-old admitted: “It’s possible to do the magnetic plug inspection, but 10 minutes seems very tight to also do a turnaround inspection for me.
“It would take longer to shut down and start up the aircraft, and the window for refuelling doesn’t seem right to me.
“I would have thought you would at least need 15 minutes. Sometimes we do have incorrect times we have to rectify.
“It appears it’s a 10-minute window but it seems a very small window to do all three tasks.
“There is an anomaly there, I think.”
The sheriff said a test may need to be carried out to check the time it would take to refuel the aircraft and establish the correct time the engineers had to carry out the work.
Everyone on board the helicopter was killed instantly when it hit the water off the north-east coast a day later.
The victims were: Brian Barkley, 30; James Costello, 24; Alex Dallas, 62; and Vernon Elrick, 41, all of Aberdeen; Stuart Wood, 27, of Newmachar; Warren Mitchell, 38, of Oldmeldrum; Leslie Taylor, 41, of Kintore; and Paul Burnham, 31, of Methlick; Raymond Doyle, 57, of Cumbernauld; James Edwards, 33, of Liverpool; Nairn Ferrier, 40, of Dundee; Nolan Goble, 34, of Norwich; Gareth Hughes, 53, of Angus; David Rae, 63, of Dumfries; Richard Menzies, 24, of Droitwich Spa; and Mihails Zuravskis, 39, of Latvia.
The inquiry continues.