– I saw helicopter traffic before I knew where it was going. After a while they started to stop around a point over there between the mountains, says Amalie Halse and points out to sea. At 19.41 on Wednesday evening, a helicopter crashed outside Sotra, west of Bergen. One person has been confirmed dead, one person critically injured and one person seriously injured. The remaining three are slightly injured. The deceased is a woman in her 60s who is employed as a nurse at Equinor. Timeline: The helicopter crash west of Sotra This is what happened with the helicopter that crashed west of Sotra in Vestland. The newest updates are at the top of the timeline. Several of the times are taken from the Norwegian Central Rescue Service. The map shows when the helicopter flew before it crashed. The helicopter took off at Bergen airport, Flesland. Furthermore, the helicopter flew west and up the Hjeltfjord before it flew south and crashed west of Sotra. Below the map is the timeline with the latest news about the helicopter crash. The coastguard ship that contributed to the search for wreckage parts is now on its way to Haakonsvern outside Bergen with parts they have found in the sea. It is Chief of Staff Gustav Landro in the West Police District who tells this to TV 2. The Coast Guard is not quite sure what kind of parts they have with them, but they take it ashore. Here the parts will be handed over to the police. According to VG, the police have questioned two of those who were on board the helicopter. – We have conducted two interviews and are planning more tomorrow, says chief of staff Gustav Landro in the West police district to VG. Equinor is suspending all helicopter flights until Friday at 10 a.m. following the accident outside Bergen. Information director Sissel Rinde tells NTB. Energy Minister Terje Aasland (Ap) sends his thoughts to those affected after the helicopter accident outside Bergen. At the same time, he is asking for a thorough investigation of the accident. The police say they believe that the trip recorder, also called “the black box”, on the helicopter will be found, but that the job is challenging due to high waves and strong winds. The six people who was on board the helicopter was wearing a survival suit, say the police. The CEO of Equinor states that the deceased woman was a nurse at work to look after others. All helicopter flights to and from the heliport are canceled until 6 p.m. ConocoPhillips flights are canceled until further notice. There are also the flights for Aker BP. Vest police district states that it was a woman in her 60s, seen in Equinor, who died in the accident. The other five in the helicopter were employed in Bristow. The head of the Norwegian Aviation Accident Investigation Board says that they believe the wreck lies at a depth of 300 metres. Haukeland University Hospital informs X that one person is critically injured, one seriously injured and three lightly injured. The National Accident Investigation Board for Aviation starts work after the helicopter accident. The aim is to find the main part of the wreckage and then raise it from there. Photo: The rescue company The police confirmed on Thursday morning that a search was carried out throughout the night for the helicopter that crashed. Photo: Coast Guard / NTB The police confirm that one person has died. Another is slightly injured, while the remaining four have varying degrees of damage. The police set up a reception for relatives. The lifeboat has started to find wreckage. They are looking for more parts. The rescue operation is over. Haukeland University Hospital confirms that they have received six people. The condition is unclear. Photo: Kjell Jøran Hansen / news news can confirm that the Accident Investigation Board is in the process of staffing up. The rescue helicopter Florø confirms the discovery of the last person. Five minutes later they confirm that they have a person on board and are traveling towards Haukeland. At the present time, it may look like 25 minutes have passed since the Sola helicopter left until the last person is on board the Sola rescue helicopter. The rescue helicopter, with the first five people who were picked up from the sea, lands at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen. The police confirm that there has been an aviation accident in the sea west of Sotra in Vestland. The rescue helicopter Sola reports that they are on their way to Haukeland hospital with five people on board. The reason they have to go towards Haukeland is that they no longer have fuel to stay in the area. HRS knows that they already have rescue helicopter Florø on its way to the search area. There is also an air ambulance in the area that indicates the location of the last one. The rescue helicopter Sola reports that they cannot see the helicopter itself that has crashed. Øygarden municipality receives notification of the helicopter crash. They saw emergency staff. Persons are observed in the sea and hoisting starts. The persons must have a doctor in the sea for 45-50 minutes. The Sola rescue helicopter observes people in the sea and starts the process of hoisting them up. The police receive a report of a helicopter being flown west of Sotra. The main rescue center is informed that there are six people on board. The rescue helicopter Sola, which is already in the air for training, is sent in the direction of the area indicated by the emergency signal. HRS out alerts the rescue helicopter in Florø. They also ask Kystradio to send a mayday relay to vessels in the area. KV Sortland confirms that they set course for the area. It is agreed that a pilot helicopter from Flesland can go towards the area. The ambulance boat Austevolljenta is also asked to go towards the area. At 20.03 the rescue helicopter Sola reports that they are approximately 15 minutes from the position. HRS asks Kystradio to call out lifeboats from the Rescue Association. We are talking about Bjarne Kyrkjebø and Kristian Gerhard Jensen II. HRS can confirm that it is one of the rescue helicopters from Bristow, and that they have been out on a training trip. The main rescue center asks the air traffic controller in Avinor to check if they can make contact with the helicopter. Three minutes later they receive feedback that they cannot make contact over the radio. The helicopter hits the water and an emergency direction finder is activated. The main rescue center receives a message that an emergency beacon has been triggered and the rescue leaders on duty start to check more closely what kind of machine it is that is sending the signal and try to make contact. HRS is informed that a personal emergency beacon, of the type worn by helicopter crew in a rescue helicopter, has been triggered. The position of this is in the same area as the emergency bearing transmitter of the helicopter. Avinor, ACC and the tower on Flesland are contacted. The helicopter probably loses radar contact, according to Aircraftregister.net. The helicopter is completing an exercise with a ship from Wilson Shipping on behalf of Equinor. The helicopter flies west. The helicopter takes off from Bergen airport, Flesland. Show more Halse lives not far from where the helicopter accident happened on Wednesday evening. She saw the rescue operation. She had sat down to watch TV and relax, when she heard an unusually high amount of helicopter traffic that lasted an unusually long time outside the house. When she checked Flightradar24, she saw that there were five helicopters near her house. Amalie took this photo while the rescue operation was underway. Photo: Amalie Halse / Amalie Halse Then she got a message from her brother that there had been a helicopter accident. – I got a lump in my stomach right away. I ran to the window to see what was going on out there. Then I saw that there was a helicopter flying back and forth, with lots of lights and flashing lights, she says and adds: – It wasn’t that easy to see things, but I saw that it was out here. See the latest about the accident here: Saw the exercise At the time of the accident, the helicopter was engaged in a search and rescue exercise, commissioned by Equinor. Benjamin Kragseth was at work as a sailor on the service boat Fosna Odin, and was on his way north to the Sognefjord when he saw the exercise. Amalie Halse looks beyond the place where she saw several helicopters on Wednesday evening. Photo: Benjamin Dyrdal / news – We don’t see that kind of thing very often, with a helicopter and a boat practicing like that, so that’s why I filmed. We knew it was an exercise, and we just passed it, he says. His service boat went further north to the Sognefjorden. Shortly afterwards they heard on the radio that there was a mayday message that a helicopter was missing and that they had no contact with. By then they were about 2 hours away from the accident, and were not called in to assist. – It was not pleasant to know that the helicopter we saw was the one that later crashed. It’s not nice, he says. Benjamin filmed the exercise: Drawing lines to a previous accident Halse has both a brother and a roommate who work offshore, and who regularly use a helicopter back and forth from the platform. – That is the biggest fear. Not just for us to lose someone, but what they go through out in the dark falling into the sea. You immediately think of the Turøy accident, she says. Because Wednesday’s accident happened not too far from where a serious helicopter accident has occurred in the past. This is how it looks from Amalie Halse’s window. At the mountains at the very back of the picture, she saw the helicopters. The accident happened six kilometers out to sea. Photo: Benjamin Dyrdal / news The Turøy accident was a helicopter accident that occurred in 2016 in the south of Øygarden municipality. Then 13 people lost their lives. The Turøy accident in 2016 left a mark on society, and local people quickly draw lines between that accident and the accident that happened on Wednesday evening. – That was the first thing I thought of yesterday when I got the message that we had to go through it again. Fortunately, this was not as extensive, but nevertheless it is clear that it is tragic when a person dies and for those closest to him, it will be as heavy as if there were more, says mayor of Øygarden municipality, Tom Georg Indrevik. – But it is clear that many draw a parallel there, and even though there have been very few helicopter accidents in the North Sea over all the years we have had the oil and gas industry, he adds. – This was what we feared the most. Mats Thune, union secretary in SAFE, says that they worked until late in the evening yesterday, and were up early today to take care of their members in Equinor. They find that the members are worried about flying in case there is something wrong with the planes. – We have talked about this a lot, also long before this accident. We have long called for a plan b, says Thune. Large resources have contributed to the rescue operation and to the search for wreckage. One woman is confirmed dead, while five people are injured. Photo: The rescue company There is only one approved helicopter alternative for transporting oil and gas workers offshore. Thune points out that there should be an alternative actor. – If it turns out to be a technical error, then it is clear that there should have been a plan on the table from before if something like that were to happen. This was what we feared most, that something like this would happen, he says.
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