Lightning Hits Super Puma 56 Charlie: North Sea Ditching | Mayday

A routine hop to Bray Alpha turns into a fight for survival when Super Puma 56 Charlie is hit by lightning over the North Sea. What follows tests training, nerve, and engineering assumptions. From the first hail pelts to the mayday, we track Commander Ced Roberts and First Officer Lionel Sol as vibration builds, a tail rotor problem erupts, and a split-second ditching decision saves 18 lives. But the rescue is only half the story. Why did this strike cripple the helicopter? How did a drifting, overloaded life raft get found in a grey, raging sea? And what hidden design flaw inside composite rotor blades shocked investigators and raised questions far beyond the oil fields? Join the search teams, 56 Bravo’s airborne shepherding, the Grampian Freedom’s fast boat, and AAIB’s deep-sea recovery as a lost tail rotor reveals a bigger aviation risk. Watch to see how a single flash exposed a vulnerability, and why the conclusions still matter for anyone flying near storms. #Mayday #SuperPuma #NorthSea #LightningStrike #Aviation #AirCrashInvestigation #HelicopterRescue