Four Maltese in 'miracle' North Sea rescue
'Too early to speculate whether the tail came off'
Four Maltese oil workers are safe and sound after being rescued from the helicopter which ditched into the North Sea on Wednesday evening.
Richard Gauci, Keith Spiteri, Adrian Gomes and Emmanuel Spiteri were with 14 other oil workers aboard who all survived the accident in what has been compared to the Hudson River "miracle".
The Super Puma helicopter ditched as it approached an oil rig just before 7 p.m. Workers on board the installation saw it go down about 500 metres away and immediately raised the alarm.
It is unclear what caused the accident but rescuers said the helicopter tail boom was missing.
The oil platform in the Etap (Eastern Trough Area Project) field, a complex of reservoirs operated by BP, is situated some 200km north east of Aberdeen.
Brendon Gauci told The Times his brother Richard was on the helicopter having left Malta two days earlier.
He phoned the family just two hours after the crash to confirm that everyone was safe.
"They were in shock and they have lost all their belongings but they are otherwise OK," Mr Gauci said.
The aunt of 20-year-old Keith Spiteri posted a comment on timesofmalta.com yesterday saying he had been asleep on the helicopter when the crash landing took place.
She said he phoned home soon after the incident and they also saw him on British television.
"He thought he was in a dream but awoke to find himself in the water," she said.
He too was uninjured. She said Mr Spiteri has been an oil worker for just over a year.
All the survivors returned to land in the early hours of yesterday. Three people were slightly injured in the accident but were discharged from hospital.
The helicopter landed upright and remained afloat thanks to special flotation bags which inflated when it hit the water.
The passengers escaped into three rubber dinghies equipped with locator beacons, which were detected by satellites enabling rescuers to pinpoint their exact position.
The Times of London said the Coastguard compared the rescue in dark and icy waters more than 100 miles offshore to the "miracle on the Hudson", when Captain Chesley Sullenberger brought down an airliner on the Hudson River in New York last month without anyone on board being injured.
"It is absolutely comparable to the Hudson River and it may well turn out that the pilot's expertise contributed to saving all those lives. We are all very pleased," a Coastguard spokesman was quoted as saying.
A spokesman for the Maltese agency that recruited the four Maltese oil workers yesterday evening confirmed they were "healthy and good".
They were about to start their tour of duty on the rig but will now be returning home. A tour of duty normally lasts between 15 days and 21 depending on the contract.
BP officials said it was too early to speculate whether the tail came off while the helicopter was in flight or when it crash-landed.
Investigations by members of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch team yesterday were in Aberdeen to start their inquiries.
As a precautionary measure BP decided not to use the other two Super Puma helicopters operated by Bond.
The helicopter overturned in the sea yesterday and an operation to haul it out of the water was underway so that investigators could continue with their inquiry.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com