The Warning Was 3 Millimetres Long | The North Sea Helicopter Crash

On 1 April 2009, a Super Puma carrying fourteen oil workers home from the North Sea lost its main rotor eleven nautical miles off Peterhead. All sixteen people on board died. A week earlier, engineers had found a sliver of steel less than three millimetres long on the gearbox's chip detector. They mounted it on a glass slide and filed it. It had come from the gear that failed. Seven years later, in Norway, the same gear failed again. The facts in this film come from the investigation reports and the sources below. 0:00 The last radio calls 1:06 The flight 1:39 The gearbox 2:33 A normal amount of metal 2:52 The 25th of March 5:12 Why nothing else caught it 5:53 The last minutes 6:54 What they found 8:02 Norway, 2016: the same gear 9:11 The fleet 9:33 What remains SOURCES AAIB Aircraft Accident Report 2/2011, G-REDL https://assets.publishing.service.gov... NSIA Report 2018/04, LN-OJF (Accident Investigation Board Norway) https://nsia.no/Aviation/Aviation/Pub... Fatal accident inquiry findings, 2014 (CMS summary) https://cms.law/en/gbr/legal-updates/... EASA emergency AD for the H225, 2016 (Vertical) https://verticalmag.com/news/easa-iss... UK and Norway lift the H225 grounding, 2017 (Vertical) https://verticalmag.com/news/uk-norwa... WHAT IS RECONSTRUCTED The radio calls are reconstructions voiced by synthetic stock voices, not the crew. The two mayday calls use the words the AAIB report transcribes; the controller's wording is illustrative. They are labelled on screen whenever they play. The diagrams are schematics based on the two reports, not engineering drawings. Every helicopter shown in flight is another aircraft, labelled as such on screen. The only images of G-REDL itself are two photographs by Gary Watt and the AAIB's own figures. REPORT FIGURES Air Accidents Investigation Branch, Aircraft Accident Report 2/2011 (G-REDL), Figs 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 30. © Crown copyright, reproduced as extracts with acknowledgement. Figures credited to the manufacturer in the report are not used. PHOTOGRAPHS (Wikimedia Commons) Gary Watt, GFDL 1.2: G-REDL in flight; G-REDL on the ground Ronnie Robertson, CC BY-SA 2.0: Bond Super Pumas G-REDJ, G-REDN (three) and G-REDR Flerg, CC BY-SA 4.0: Bond EC225 at Aberdeen Klaas Reinder Sluijs, GFDL: CHC Super Puma at Flesland tjodolv, CC BY 2.0: Gullfaks platforms L.C. Nøttaasen, CC BY 2.0: Turøy bridge; CC BY-SA 2.0: sunset over Turøy Øystein H. Brekke, CC BY-SA 3.0: Skogsøyna AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0: Johnston Gardens, Aberdeen Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0: the G-REDL memorial (geograph.org.uk) Stanley Howe, CC BY-SA 2.0: the memorial in Johnston Gardens (geograph.org.uk) Links to every file and licence are in the pinned comment. SUPER PUMA FOOTAGE (Wikimedia Commons) Kauko Helavuo, Helsinki Kaivopuisto airshow 2017, CC BY 3.0 German police Super Pumas at Schmilka, 2022, CC0 VIDEO (YouTube, Creative Commons Attribution, CC BY 3.0) LEJ.approach, German Super Puma flying by:    • ILA 2014 - German Super Puma flying by   zufallspotter, D-HEGT over Kiel-Holtenau:    • 2022-02-18 - D-HEGT SuperPuma der BPol übe...   Cheng Soon HO, HKGFS Super Puma:    • Hong Kong Government Flying Services Super...   The Mighty Spotter, RNLAF Cougar swing load:    • [4K/50FPS] (RNLAF) EPIC! AS532 U2 Cougar M...   HeliChris Aviation, offshore flight AW139:    • Offshore flight AW139 MCC IFR #aviation #h...   Mark Sales, monopod landing:    • Monopod landing.wmv   Bryan Saravia, vessel–helicopter operations:    • Vessel-Helicopter Operations | Pilot transfer   Redningsselskapet, the Eemslift Hendrika rescue:    • Redningsaksjon «EEMSLIFT HENDRIKA»   VCE, docking in Aberdeen:    • Docking in Aberdeen   John Edwards, Nigg Energy Park:    • Nigg Energy Park, Firth of Cromarty, Scotl...   Paul Morgan, Ensco 121:    • Ensco 121 Platform 1   and    • Ensco 121 Platform 5   Free Stock Footage, Cromarty Firth rigs:    • Three oil rigs on the Cromarty Firth   Free Stock Footage, offshore supply ship:    • Offshore supply ship at sea, Aerial footage   Marines, Osprey maintenance:    • Maintenance Marines keep Ospreys in Afghan...   Additional stock footage: Pexels contributors, under the Pexels licence. Music and sound design: original, made for this film. If you have worked in helicopter maintenance, I'd like to hear from you in the comments. In memory of the sixteen who died on G-REDL, and the thirteen on LN-OJF. #SuperPuma #NorthSea #EngineeringFailure