Incident Overview
A helicopter conducting a positioning flight from an offshore oil platform to the company's on-shore operations base experienced an accident. The pilot, who had accumulated 18,056 flight hours, made a mayday distress call on the common traffic advisory frequency, stating that "he was going down." No further radio transmissions were received from the pilot thereafter.
Accident Sequence
The helicopter impacted the water approximately 8 miles short of its intended destination. Examination of the recovered wreckage showed signatures consistent with an uncontrolled impact with the water. There were no reported eyewitnesses to the accident.
Weather and Conditions
No significant weather was reported in the area at the time of the accident.
Investigation Findings
During the course of the investigation, no mechanical anomalies were found with the airframe or the engine. The engine was subjected to a teardown examination at the engine manufacturer's factory, which did not reveal any anomalies that could have prevented normal operations. Several helicopter components and parts were further examined at the helicopter manufacturer's laboratory; no anomalies or pre-existing faults were found with any of the examined parts.