2002 Bristow Helicopters Sikorsky S-76A crash
Sikorsky S-76A · Main rotor blade failure
From Gas production platform Clipper, Sole Pitt gas field to Jackup drilling rig Global Santa Fe Monarch, attached to Leman 49/26 Foxtrot
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 11 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 11
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Sikorsky S-76A
- Aircraft type
- Sikorsky S-76
- Category
- Helicopter · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- G-BJVX
- Operator
- Bristow Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- 11
- Route
- From Gas production platform Clipper, Sole Pitt gas fieldTo Jackup drilling rig Global Santa Fe Monarch, attached to Leman 49/26 Foxtrot
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
- Organizational issues › Development
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
G-BJVX, a Norwich-based commercial Sikorsky S-76A helicopter operated by Bristow Helicopters, crashed in the evening of 16 July 2002 in the southern North Sea while it was making a ten-minute flight between the gas production platform Clipper and the drilling rig Global Santa Fe Monarch, after which it was to return to Norwich Airport. All 11 people on board died.
Investigators discovered the accident was caused by the failure of a main rotor blade.
Accident
The 22-year-old helicopter was flying at an altitude of about 320 ft when workers on the Global Santa Fe Monarch heard "a loud bang". No witnesses were watching the aircraft at the time, but some saw it dive steeply into the sea. A witness also reported seeing the helicopter's rotor head with rotor blades attached falling into the sea after the body of the helicopter had impacted.
The accident caused the death of all those on board (two crew members and nine Shell workers as passengers). The body of the eleventh man has never been recovered.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The wreckage, which included the helicopter's flight data recorder, was brought ashore at Great Yarmouth on 21 July, and transferred to an Air Accidents Investigation Branch facility near Aldershot, Hampshire, where it was examined by investigators from the AAIB, the US National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration, the aircraft manufacturer, and the operator.
Cause
The audio recordings from the Cockpit voice recorder revealed that the crew were unaware of any significant abnormality until the flight from the Clipper platform to the Monarch platform. About 4.5 minutes into this flight, they discussed an increase in vibration. The non-handling pilot carried out a "rotor track and balance" procedure; the increase in vibration did not cause the crew any immediate concern and the procedure was carried out to enable the Integrated Vehicle Health and Usage Monitoring System (IVHUMS) to log rotor track and balance data for later analysis.
Frequency spectrum analysis of the audio recordings indicated an increase in the amplitude of frequencies associated with main rotor vibration towards the end of the recording. The recording ended abruptly with three unusual, probably structure-borne, sounds.
Wreckage analysis showed that, while three of the main rotor blades exhibited only superficial damage, the fourth was fractured at a position approximately 76.75 in from the blade root, while the main rotor gearbox's casing was also fractured. Neither the gearbox nor the rotor head could be recovered. The rotor blade, which had been manufactured in March 1981, had been struck by lightning in 1999, when it was repaired by the manufacturer and returned to service.
After the accident, the AAIB and the helicopter's manufacturer, Stratford, Connecticut-based Sikorsky Aircraft, reached the opinion that the electrical energy imparted by the lightning strike in 1999 exploited an anomaly that was built into the blade at manufacture and damaged the spar. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch report stated that the manufacturers should have noticed the error, unless it was permitted by concession.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2002 Bristow Helicopters Sikorsky S-76A crash” (revision 1340805895, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2002 Bristow Helicopters Sikorsky S-76A crash
- Revision
- 1340805895 · 2026-02-27 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4599792
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2002 Bristow Helicopters Sikorsky S-76A crash" (page 18627754, revision 1340805895)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator is an airline according to Wikidata
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.