CHC Helikopter Service
Encyclopedia
CHC Helikopter Service, previously CHC Norway, CHC Helikopter Service and Helikopter Service was the Norwegian division of CHC Helicopter Corporation
. The airline was an independent company until 1999. It operates primarily to oil platform
s on the Norwegian continental shelf
in the North Sea
and the Norwegian Sea
, with crew change, infield shuttle and search and rescue
operations. Though the global headquarters are in Richmond, B.C., Canada
, the company has its main base at Stavanger Airport, Sola
.
The company also operates out of the airports Bergen Airport, Flesland
, Brønnøysund Airport, Brønnøy
, Florø Airport
and Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget
in addition to the oil installations Ekofisk, Oseberg, Statfjord and Heidrun. It also operated a public service obligation
on the route Bodø
-Værøy
and the national rescue helicopter service for some years.
helicopters and at the same time changed its name to Helikopter Service. By 1980 the company was operating 20 such helicopters. The airline had by then been acquired by Scandinavian Airlines and Fred. Olsen
.
In 1982 the company started to renew its fleet, introducing the Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma
and later the Eurocopter Super Puma 2
. In 1993 it also started operating the Eurocopter Dauphin
with possibilities for search and rescue purposes.
In 1996 the company changed its name to Helicopter Services Group and bought the British
Bond Helicopters, its Australia
n subsidiary Lloyd Helicopters and later the South Africa
n Court Helicopters.
CHC Helicopter
bought Helikopter Services Group in 1999 and in 2000 the company changed name to CHC Helikopter Service. In 2000 the company sold the subsidiaries Lufttransport
to Norwegian Air Shuttle
and Heliflyg to Osterman Aero.
On 2 April 2009 the name was again changed to CHC Norway.
On the 26 october 2010 the name was changed back to the current CHC Helikopter Service. “By using the name ‘CHC Helikopter Service’ we are recognizing the long tradition and proud history of a company that has been serving the Norwegian oil and gas industry for almost 60 years,” said Tilmann Gabriel, chairman of CHC Norway and president of CHC Helicopter’s European Operations in a company press release.
CHC Helicopter
CHC Helicopter is one of the world’s largest helicopter services company specializing in: Transportation to offshore oil and gas platforms; Civilian search and rescue services; Helicopter maintenance repair and overhaul...
. The airline was an independent company until 1999. It operates primarily to oil platform
Oil platform
An oil platform, also referred to as an offshore platform or, somewhat incorrectly, oil rig, is a lаrge structure with facilities to drill wells, to extract and process oil and natural gas, and to temporarily store product until it can be brought to shore for refining and marketing...
s on the Norwegian continental shelf
Norwegian continental shelf
The Norwegian continental shelf is the continental shelf over which Norway exercises sovereign rights as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea...
in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
and the Norwegian Sea
Norwegian Sea
The Norwegian Sea is a marginal sea in the North Atlantic Ocean, northwest of Norway. It is located between the North Sea and the Greenland Sea and adjoins the North Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Barents Sea to the northeast. In the southwest, it is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a...
, with crew change, infield shuttle and search and rescue
Search and rescue
Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...
operations. Though the global headquarters are in Richmond, B.C., Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the company has its main base at Stavanger Airport, Sola
Stavanger Airport, Sola
Stavanger Airport, Sola is an international airport located in Sola, Norway, southwest of Stavanger. It is Norway's third-busiest airport, with both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter traffic for the offshore North Sea oil installations...
.
The company also operates out of the airports Bergen Airport, Flesland
Bergen Airport, Flesland
Bergen Airport, Flesland is an international airport located southwest of Bergen, Norway. Opened in 1955, it is the second-busiest airport in Norway, with 5,296,325 passengers in 2010. Flesland is operated by the state-owned Avinor...
, Brønnøysund Airport, Brønnøy
Brønnøysund Airport, Brønnøy
Brønnøysund Airport, Brønnøy is the airport serving the town of Brønnøysund in the Brønnøy municipality in Nordland, Norway. The airport is located southeast of the town centre and opened in 1968. Brønnøy is operated by Avinor...
, Florø Airport
Florø Airport
Florø airport is an airport serving the town of Florø in Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It is located south of the town centre, on an area of land called Florelandet...
and Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget
Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget
Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget is a small size international airport located next to the small mountain Kvernberget, east southeast or from the town center of Kristiansund in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway, opened in 1970 and caters to the county's northern district, Nordmøre. The airport...
in addition to the oil installations Ekofisk, Oseberg, Statfjord and Heidrun. It also operated a public service obligation
Public Service Obligation
In transport, public service obligation or PSO is an arrangement in which a governing body or other authority offers an auction for subsidies, permit the winning company a monopoly to operate a specified service of public transport for a specified period of time for the given subsidy...
on the route Bodø
Bodø
is a city and a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Salten region.The city of Bodø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . Bodin was merged with Bodø on 1 January 1968. Skjerstad was merged with Bodø on 1 January 2005...
-Værøy
Værøy
Værøy is an island and municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Lofoten traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sørland. Værøy was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838...
and the national rescue helicopter service for some years.
History
The company started out operating under the name Scancopter-Service A/S in 1956, using various small helicopters. But in 1966 the first steps in the Norwegian oil exploration started, and the company acquired two Sikorsky S-61Sikorsky S-61
The Sikorsky S-61L and S-61N are civil variants of the successful SH-3 Sea King helicopter. They are two of the most widely used airliner and oil rig support helicopters built.-Design and development:...
helicopters and at the same time changed its name to Helikopter Service. By 1980 the company was operating 20 such helicopters. The airline had by then been acquired by Scandinavian Airlines and Fred. Olsen
Fred. Olsen & Co.
Fred. Olsen & Co. is a large shipping company based in Oslo, Norway. The company was founded by Petter Olsen in 1848. Today it is the holding company that controls the Olsen family's interest through Bonheur and Ganger Rolf.-History:...
.
In 1982 the company started to renew its fleet, introducing the Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma
Eurocopter Super Puma
The Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma is a four-bladed, twin-engine, medium-size utility helicopter marketed for both civil and military use. Originally designed and built by Aérospatiale, it is an enlarged and re-engined version of the original Aérospatiale Puma...
and later the Eurocopter Super Puma 2
Eurocopter Super Puma
The Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma is a four-bladed, twin-engine, medium-size utility helicopter marketed for both civil and military use. Originally designed and built by Aérospatiale, it is an enlarged and re-engined version of the original Aérospatiale Puma...
. In 1993 it also started operating the Eurocopter Dauphin
Eurocopter Dauphin
The Eurocopter SA 365/AS365 Dauphin 2 is a medium-weight multipurpose twin-engine helicopter manufactured by Eurocopter .-Design and development:...
with possibilities for search and rescue purposes.
In 1996 the company changed its name to Helicopter Services Group and bought the British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
Bond Helicopters, its Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n subsidiary Lloyd Helicopters and later the South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n Court Helicopters.
CHC Helicopter
CHC Helicopter
CHC Helicopter is one of the world’s largest helicopter services company specializing in: Transportation to offshore oil and gas platforms; Civilian search and rescue services; Helicopter maintenance repair and overhaul...
bought Helikopter Services Group in 1999 and in 2000 the company changed name to CHC Helikopter Service. In 2000 the company sold the subsidiaries Lufttransport
Lufttransport
Lufttransport is a Norwegian helicopter and fixed-wing airline that operates primarily air ambulance helicopters and planes for the Norwegian and Swedish governments...
to Norwegian Air Shuttle
Norwegian Air Shuttle
Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA , trading as Norwegian, is the second-largest airline in Scandinavia. In 2010, it transported 13.0 million people. As of October 2011, Norwegian operates a total fleet of 62 aircraft; 17 Boeing 737-300s and 45 Boeing 737-800s...
and Heliflyg to Osterman Aero.
On 2 April 2009 the name was again changed to CHC Norway.
On the 26 october 2010 the name was changed back to the current CHC Helikopter Service. “By using the name ‘CHC Helikopter Service’ we are recognizing the long tradition and proud history of a company that has been serving the Norwegian oil and gas industry for almost 60 years,” said Tilmann Gabriel, chairman of CHC Norway and president of CHC Helicopter’s European Operations in a company press release.
CHC EMS and SAR services
- Norwegian Search and Rescue - CHC provides private Search and Rescue services in the Norwegian North Sea but acts in concert with government SAR operations. The CHC SAR fleet includes three offshore based AS 332L1, along with an EC225 at Statoil’s Statfjord field, which can be converted from inter-rig shuttle role to SAR duty role within 15 minutes. Several of the Super Pumas in CHC’s Norwegian fleet are prepared for the same quick change to SAR configuration.
Fleet
- 6 Eurocopter AS332L Super PumaEurocopter Super PumaThe Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma is a four-bladed, twin-engine, medium-size utility helicopter marketed for both civil and military use. Originally designed and built by Aérospatiale, it is an enlarged and re-engined version of the original Aérospatiale Puma...
- 2 Eurocopter AS332L1 Super PumaEurocopter Super PumaThe Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma is a four-bladed, twin-engine, medium-size utility helicopter marketed for both civil and military use. Originally designed and built by Aérospatiale, it is an enlarged and re-engined version of the original Aérospatiale Puma...
- 8 Eurocopter AS332L2 Super Puma 2Eurocopter Super PumaThe Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma is a four-bladed, twin-engine, medium-size utility helicopter marketed for both civil and military use. Originally designed and built by Aérospatiale, it is an enlarged and re-engined version of the original Aérospatiale Puma...
- 10 Sikorsky S-92Sikorsky S-92The Sikorsky S-92 is a four-bladed twin-engine medium-lift helicopter built by Sikorsky Aircraft for the civil and military helicopter market. The S-92 was developed from the Sikorsky S-70 helicopter and has similar parts such as flight control and rotor systems.The H-92 Superhawk is a military...
A - 7 Eurocopter EC 225 LP
Accidents and incidents
- On 26 June 1978 all 18 crew and passengers on Sikorsky died when it crashed 87 nautical miles (161 km) northwest of Bergen, probably because the rotor loosened from the rotor head.
- On 1 March 1988 a Super-Puma helicopter had to perform a controlled emergency landing on a cargo ship 100 nautical miles (185.2 km) west of EgersundEgersundThe town of Egersund was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 . It was merged with the surrounding municipality of Eigersund January 1, 1965....
. No one was hurt. - On 16 July 1988 a Super-Puma helicopter had to perform an emergency landing in the North Sea. Everyone was picked up by another helicopter.
- On 18 January 1996 the Super-Puma helicopter registered LN-OBP was forced to perform an emergency landing in the North Sea some 200 kilometers south-west of Egersund. All passengers survived and the helicopter was still floating 3 days later. Subsequently the remains of the helicopter went for rebuilding by the students at the aviation technical school at SolaSolaSola is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is part of the region of Jæren. The old municipality of Håland was divided into Sola and Madla in 1930....
, NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... - On 8 September 1997 the AS332 L1 Super-Puma registered "LN-OPG by Helikopter Service, while flying from BrønnøysundBrønnøysundis a town and the administrative centre of the municipality of Brønnøy, Norway. It is also a former municipality in Nordland county. The village of Brønnøysund received town status in 2000. The city lies along the coast and is often called "the coastal town in the middle of Norway." Brønnøysund...
to the Norne oil fieldNorne oil fieldNorne is an oil field located around north of the Heidrun oil field in the Norwegian Sea. The sea depth in the area is . The field is roughly from the landfall at Dornum in Germany. Norne lies in a licence which was awarded in 1986, and embraces blocks 6608/10 and 6608/11. The Alve field nearby...
suffered a catastrophic main gearbox failure and crashes killing all 12 aboard. Eurocopter accepted some but not all of the AAIB/N recommendations. Eurocopter's reply can be found in Appendix F to the report (page 265 in the pdf).