Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Pilot union drops black box challenge over North Sea Super Puma crash

The Super Puma went down in the North Sea off Sumburgh airport on Shetland in 2013
The Super Puma went down in the North Sea off Sumburgh airport on Shetland in 2013

A pilot union has dropped its legal challenge to stop a black box recorder from a helicopter crash being given to prosecutors.

The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) launched an appeal after Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland won the right to access the cockpit recorder from the Super Puma, which ditched into the North Sea in 2013.

Four people were killed in the crash at Sumburgh in Shetland, and the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) is still investigating.

Earlier this year, a judge ruled the Crown Office should be allowed to examine the black box which was taken from the chopper.

Mr Mulholland had argued that gaining access to the recording was necessary to speed up the criminal investigation.

However, the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) said the move could damage an open safety culture amongst pilots if data was to be used to assign blame before air accident specialists had completed their investigations.

Yesterday, however, the Crown Office confirmed Balpa’s legal challenge had been dropped.

A spokesman said: “The families of those who lost their lives in the tragedy have been advised of this and will continue to be updated in relation to any other significant developments.

“The investigation into the circumstances of the crash that resulted in the deaths continues.”

A union spokesman for Balpa last night confirmed the appeal had been dropped, and said they had opposed the decision amid concerns about the “timing” of the probe.

He said: “Pilots also need to feel unconstrained when giving their evidence and want to protect the trusted international agreement they have with specialist accident investigators. This enables the thorough monitoring of the flight deck which is vital in helping establish the causes of accidents so we can prevent them happening again.

“Given that in this case the AAIB has now completed the substantive part of its investigation and issued its draft report to interested parties for comment, Balpa will no longer contest the court’s ruling that limited cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder data may be released early to the lord advocate.”

A total of 18 people were on board when the Super Puma crashed off the coast of Shetland two years ago.

Oil workers Sarah Darnley from Elgin, Gary McCrossan, from Inverness, Duncan Munro, from Bishop Auckland, and George Allison, from Winchester, all died in the tragedy.