Deepest appreciation (Mark Abbey)

Monday marked one month since four people perished in the 23rd August accident involving one of our aircraft.

The incident continues to deeply affect a great number of people, especially the families and friends of those who died. Along with those who survived the incident, they remain in our thoughts and prayers every day.

I write on this occasion to share the immense gratitude we at CHC feel for those people and agencies who mounted – rapid and, in some cases, risky – search-and-rescue aircraft-recovery efforts following the accident.

They include volunteers who staffed the operations room at the Shetland Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre and served as MCA rescue officers, NorthLink Ferries, which immediately diverted from their normal route to be among first responders on the scene, the Maritime Coastguard Agency’s Rescue Helicopter 102, scrambling from its Shetland base to act along with Royal Air Force helicopter Rescue 137 and BP’s Jigsaw helicopter, RNLI people, who searched for dozens of hours over several days, recovering victims and playing a key role in securing aircraft wreckage, and MRCC, working with Police Scotland, which recovered key parts of the aircraft.

These organisations and others, including our own emergency-response team in the UK, have our deepest appreciation for responding in extremely difficult circumstances.

We are determined to learn what went wrong that day, and to share and use this knowledge to prevent future tragedies. To that end, we continue to work closely with investigating agencies to identify what caused the accident.

At the same time we are redoubling efforts, in partnership with fellow operators and industry safety groups, to provide information to earn the confidence of the offshore industry.

Mark Abbey

Regional director

West North Sea

CHC Helicopter.