Bond Offshore Helicopters Ltd, one of the UK’s leading providers of energy support services reports that at 12.13h today an Eurocopter EC225 helicopter (registration G-REDW) outbound from Aberdeen going to the Ensco102 Maersk Resilient platform made a controlled descent 24 nautical miles off-shore.

The Captain and Co-pilot made the controlled descent and landed on the sea following standard operating procedures after the helicopter suffered a loss of gearbox oil pressure.

The 12 passengers and 2 crew-members are safe and have been recovered. The aircraft is currently afloat and upright. The focus has now shifted to recovering the helicopter with as little damage as possible so that the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) can investigate the cause of the incident.

Bill Munro, Managing Director of Bond Offshore Helicopters Ltd commented, “This was a challenging manoeuvre but one which our pilots regularly practice in our simulator. I would like to personally thank our flight crew for their professionalism in dealing with the situation.”

All passengers and crew were safely returned to Aberdeen by late this afternoon and after a pre-cautionary examination at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary have returned to their homes.

For safety reasons Bond Offshore Helicopters Ltd has decided to temporarily suspend all flights using the Eurocopter EC225 helicopter with immediate effect pending further investigation, a further update will be issued 11/05/12 18:00.

About Bond Aviation Group

Bond Aviation Group (Bond) is the UK’s largest independent emergency and mission critical helicopter operator providing air ambulance helicopter services, police and marine support to offshore wind farms and lighthouses as well as mission critical, search and rescue and energy support services in the North Sea to blue chip oil companies.

With a fleet of over forty-three aircraft and operations accumulating more than 106,000 flight hours across the globe the group benefits from an international presence and a commercially strong and financially stable parent company. Bond currently operates from bases in the UK and Australia, employing 543 people and with a turnover of £137m (annualised) in 2011.