Equinor publishes investigation report into fatal helicopter accident

25 June 2024

Equinor has conducted an internal investigation into the search and rescue helicopter accident on February 28. The aim of the investigation is to learn lessons from the accident and identify measures to improve the company’s search and rescue service and accident prevention, Equinor said.

Image: Harald Pettersen / Equinor

This serious helicopter accident resulted in the death of one Equinor employee and the injury of five Bristow employees. The Sikorsky S-92 SAR helicopter was on an exercise for Equinor at the time of the accident.

The Norwegian Safety Investigation Authority (NSIA) is responsible for recording the sequence of events and the actual cause of the accident. In March, Equinor decided to conduct an internal investigation to learn its own lessons.

The investigation was conducted by an independent investigative team led by Equinor Corporate Audit & Investigation.

“It is important that we investigate this in depth to ensure that we learn from this serious accident. The investigation has revealed lessons and points to concrete improvement points that we will pursue to further strengthen Equinor’s SAR service and accident preparedness,” says CEO Anders Opedal.

The investigation report recommends measures in the form of training and exercises, protective equipment and coordinated action within the organisation with regard to Equinor’s SAR service and accident prevention. Another recommendation is to reassess whether the measures implemented after the Turøy accident had the expected long-term effect.

The investigation team makes it clear that the recommended measures do not allow any conclusions to be drawn as to whether these factors had an influence on the cause or outcome of the incident.

You can read the full report at: https://www.equinor.com/news/20240624-equinor-investigation-report-helicopter-accident-oygarden