Second Offshore Tragedy Brings Death Toll to 13

The horrible tragedy that occurred this week near Morgan City, LA robbed 8 men of their lives. It was the Gulf’s second fatal chopper crash within two months, and the second that killed members of offshore oilfield service.

Last month, 5 were killed when their chopper went down en route to an offshore platform off the coast of Texas.  And PHI, the company involved in this week’s crash, are no strangers to tragedy, either.  Earlier this year, one of their medical choppers went down, killing four.  PHI had agreed to fly the mission after another company refused because of poor conditions.

Helicopter travel, though safe, does pose certain risks. Helicopters are special machines due to their great maneuverability; however, they are complex and require a high degree to fly, as well as to design, construct and maintain.  Because of their complexity, many times a component may fail.  There are many reasons for helicopter accidents such as product design, deficient maintenance, pilot error, poor heli-pad designs, excessive load and weather conditions.

Sunday’s lone survivor, a man from Floresville, TX, is still listed in critical, but stable condition, and family members say his is responsive.

Five of the eight men killed were employees of the Moreno Group, which includes Dynamic Industries.  The group was on their way to an offshore Shell oil rig to do maintenance work.  Others killed include two pilots, who worked for PHI Inc., under contract with Shell, and an employee of MMR Offshore Services. The victims hailed from Louisiana, Florida, Texas  and Alabama.

<strong>Crash Remains Under Investigation…</strong>

Investigators from the NTSB traveled to West Lafayette to begin researching the cause of the crash.  The investigator-in-charge will document the wreckage and will oversee the recovery of the wreckage later today. It will then be moved to West Lafayette for further examination.

Others will supervise the download of data from a recovered maintenance recorder. A second maintenance recorder is expected to be recovered today, and will be sent to PHI’s facilities for readout.

The aircraft’s combination cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder was recovered from the wreckage on Monday and arrived in Washington, D.C. today for readout.