Theory - gas cloud caused crash

Methane cloud may have caused helicopter crash
Published North West Evening Mail on 03/01/2007

A RIG safety expert who lost a friend in the Morecambe Bay helicopter disaster claims a gas cloud may have been to blame for the crash.

Tim Bell, from Dalton, says the doomed Dauphin helicopter which crashed with seven on board, may have flown into a methane cloud emitting from the underwater fields.

The chopper crashed last Wednesday as it approached a gas rig 25 miles from the Barrow coast, killing the two pilots and four rig workers.

One man is still missing, presumed dead, and the search for him could be resumed this week.

Mr Bell, who implemented safety recommendation on Morecambe Bay gas rigs following the Piper Alpha tragedy, claims that engines starved of oxygen may have cut off.

He said: “One such scenario that I have not seen reported is the possibility that the helicopter flew into a gas cloud. This gas could come from either the gas production processes, a gas pipeline leak or the seabed itself, particularly as the gas reservoir is shallow.

“This scenario has probably not been suggested as it requires transparency from the operating company on operating processes and their ability to detect and monitor gas clouds in helicopter flight paths.

“Helicopters approach the platforms from downwind of the platform so any gas release from the platform would be directly in their flight path.”

Mr Bell, a senior manager on Morecambe Bay gas rigs for 15 years, added: “Concentrations of gas would have different effects on the helicopter, depending on the ratio of gas to oxygen, 100 per cent gas would have the effect of starving the engines of oxygen and the engines would cut out immediately.”

Flight International Magazine safety editor David Learmount, however, said the theory was unlikely, but he said methane clouds were always a danger to aircraft. He said: “The engines lose power but they do not stop. It was something far more dramatic than a loss of power in the engine.

“Pilots are aware of hot air or methane gas. They are factors they have to take into account.”

Businessman Mr Bell, who worked with crash victim Robert Warburton, 60, a married man from Heysham, Lancs, added: “I join many others in expressing my heartfelt sympathy for their families and workmates.

“It is a close working community on the rigs, which is why all possible causes of this accident are fully investigated to prevent this accident happening again.”