2006 Morecambe Bay Eurocopter AS365 crash
CHC Helicopter Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin · Descent into sea due to pilot error
From Blackpool Airport (BLK) to Morecambe Bay gas platforms
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
- 7 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin
- Aircraft type
- Eurocopter AS365
- 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-BLUN
- Operator
- CHC Helicopter
- Onboard fatalities
- 7
- Route
- From Blackpool Airport (BLK)To Morecambe Bay gas platforms
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The 2006 Morecambe Bay helicopter crash was a fatal air incident that occurred on 27 December 2006 at approximately 18:40 GMT, while remote platform (Normally Unmanned Installations) crew were being transported from the Millom West via North Morecambe gas platforms to return them to the AP1, part of the Morecambe Field's Central Complex, situated approximately 24 mi from the shoreline of Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, England.
Rescue efforts recovered the bodies of six men, including those of the two pilots. The body of the seventh victim was never recovered.
The helicopter was a Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin, registration G-BLUN, owned by CHC Helicopter. The aircraft was contracted by Centrica, the company that manages the gas platform to which the helicopter was traveling.
Initial rescue was undertaken by an emergency response rescue vessel Highland Sprite (E.R.R.V) and her two onboard fast rescue craft, and later by Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) rescue service operating out of nearby Lytham St Annes, and was coordinated by HM Coastguard.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The investigation into the crash started the same night as the accident. The flight data recorders were recovered on 17 January 2007 after severe weather hampered earlier recovery attempts. The storms also hampered efforts to find and recover those lost in the incident. Because offshore helicopter operations are so crucial to the day-to-day running of offshore platforms, the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) felt it necessary to release a preliminary bulletin as soon as possible. Special Bulletin S1/2007 stated: "The conclusion of this preliminary examination is that there are no signs of pre-impact malfunction of any major mechanical components, including the tail rotor and its drive shaft."
The formal report into the accident, released in October 2008, stated that "human factors" were the cause of the crash. The co-pilot, who was the handling pilot at the time, became disoriented in the dark night and poor weather conditions, and misjudged the approach path. He asked the commander for assistance, whereupon the commander took control of the helicopter. However, the transfer of control from co-pilot to commander was roughly four seconds after the co-pilot had initially noted that he was having difficulties but did not articulate this correctly. The report found that the transfer of control wasn't smooth enough due to the co-pilot not initially articulating his need clearly and that the commander wasn't "mentally primed to take control of the helicopter." The report concluded that:
Text from the Wikipedia article “2006 Morecambe Bay Eurocopter AS365 crash” (revision 1368748949, 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: 2006 Morecambe Bay Eurocopter AS365 crash
- Revision
- 1368748949 · 2026-08-10 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4606632
- 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 "2006 Morecambe Bay Eurocopter AS365 crash" (page 8659518, revision 1368748949)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- 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.