One dead, five injured in Norway helicopter crash, halting flights

One person died and five were injured when a helicopter crashed in the ocean off western Norway, police said on Thursday, leading to a temporary halt in transport to and from the country's offshore oil and gas platforms. The Sikorsky S-92A aircraft operated by Bristow Norway was on a search and rescue training mission on Wednesday when the accident occurred, officials said.

One person died and five were injured when a helicopter crashed in the ocean off western Norway, police said on Thursday, leading to a temporary halt in transport to and from the country's offshore oil and gas platforms.

The Sikorsky S-92A aircraft operated by Bristow Norway was on a search and rescue training mission on Wednesday when the accident occurred, officials said. Norway's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it was considering whether to order a grounding of S-92A aircraft, the workhorse of the country's oil industry which flies almost all workers to and from oilfields.

"This has a high priority for us," the CAA said in a statement. It did not say when a decision would be made. Energy groups Equinor, Aker BP and ConocoPhillips said they had halted all helicopter traffic offshore Norway for the time being.

The six crew members were all hoisted from the sea by rescue workers, but one was later declared dead in hospital, police said in a statement. One of the surviving crew members was in a critical condition on Thursday and another was severely injured while the remaining three suffered lighter injuries, the hospital treating them said in an update on social media platform X.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known. "We have sent crash inspectors to Stavanger and Bergen to investigate the accident," Norwegian Safety Investigation Authority head William Bertheussen told Reuters.

The two cities are the busiest hubs for Norway's extensive oil and gas industry, which produces around 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. Bristow Group said in a statement it was fully cooperating with authorities responding to the incident and that the company was in the process of collecting relevant information.

Lockheed Martin company Sikorsky, which manufactured the helicopter, said on Wednesday that safety was its top priority and that it stood ready to support the investigation. Equinor said the helicopter that crashed was a search and rescue aircraft normally serving platforms at the company's Oseberg oil and gas field in the North Sea.

"We have confidence both in the type of helicopter and in the operators," Equinor CEO Anders Opedal told public broadcaster NRK. Still, Equinor halted all regular helicopter flights to its oil and gas platforms in Norway out of consideration for those affected and to get an overview of the situation.

Aker BP said its flights were halted "until further notice". "We will continuously assess how this incident affects our flight program and operations," Aker BP said in a statement.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)