Super Puma fatal accident inquiry: Engineer closed inspection

All 16 men on board the Super Puma died

An engineer has told an inquiry into a helicopter crash which killed 16 men that he closed the ongoing inspection of the gearbox having found no further abnormalities.

All on board the Bond Super Puma died when it came down in April 2009 off Peterhead.

David Shand was the shift supervisor working on the day it crashed.

Mr Shand said he closed down the inspection after no other metallic chips were found.

He was giving evidence on the 10th day of the fatal accident inquiry in Aberdeen.

A few days earlier, a chip had been found in the gearbox, resulting in the aircraft being put on close monitor.

Gearbox failure

An Air Accidents Investigation Branch report blamed a catastrophic gearbox failure for the crash.

The two crew who died were Capt Paul Burnham, 31, of Methlick, Aberdeenshire, and co-pilot Richard Menzies, 24, of Droitwich Spa, who worked for Bond Offshore Helicopters.

The KCA Deutag employees killed were Brian Barkley, 30, of Aberdeen; Vernon Elrick, 41, of Aberdeen; Leslie Taylor, 41, of Kintore, Aberdeenshire; Nairn Ferrier, 40, of Dundee; Gareth Hughes, 53, of Angus; David Rae, 63, of Dumfries; Raymond Doyle, 57, of Cumbernauld; James John Edwards, 33, of Liverpool; Nolan Goble, 34, of Norwich, and Mihails Zuravskis, 39, of Latvia.

The other victims were James Costello, 24, of Aberdeen, who was contracted to Production Services Network (PSN); Alex Dallas, 62, of Aberdeen, who worked for Sparrows Offshore Services; Warren Mitchell, 38, of Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire, who worked for Weatherford UK; and Stuart Wood, 27, of Aberdeen, who worked for Expro North Sea Ltd.

The inquiry continues on Tuesday.