Chopper in trouble

A SIKORSKY S-92 helicopter carrying North Sea oil workers to Shetland has been the subject of an investigation after it was forced to return to Shell’s Brent Delta rig after the crew reported “airframe vibration”.

The Bristow operated helicopter was heading for Shetland’s Scatsta airport around 12.15pm on Thursday with workers from Brent Delta and Brent Charlie when the incident occurred.

Bristow sent out a team of engineers to the platform to examine the aircraft before it was cleared to fly to Scatsta on Friday morning where it will be subject to further tests.

A spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that one of our helicopters was shut down on an offshore installation as a precautionary measure.

“The aircraft was undertaking a routine crew change flight at the time.

“An engineering team travelled to the installation to complete the fault diagnosis and establish the maintenance actions required to return the aircraft to service. We will investigate prior to further flight.”