Helikopter Service Flight 165 was a crash of a

Sikorsky S-61 The Sikorsky S-61L and S-61N are civil variants of the Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King, SH-3 Sea King military helicopter. They were developed and produced by the American helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft. The commercial version of the Sea King ...

helicopter into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

, northwest of

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, on 26 June 1978. The aircraft was en route from

Bergen Airport, Flesland Bergen Airport (; ), alternatively Bergen Flesland Airport or simply Flesland Airport, is an international airport located at Flesland in the city and municipality of Bergen, Vestland, Norway. Opened in 1955, it is the second-busiest airport i ...

to Statfjord A, an offshore

oil platform An oil platform (also called an oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, etc.) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms w ...

. The accident was caused by a

fatigue Fatigue is a state of tiredness (which is not sleepiness), exhaustion or loss of energy. It is a signs and symptoms, symptom of any of various diseases; it is not a disease in itself. Fatigue (in the medical sense) is sometimes associated wit ...

crack in a knuckle joint, causing one of the rotor blades to loosen. All eighteen people on board were killed in the crash.

Aircraft

The helicopter involved in the crash was a 2-year old

that was manufactured in 1976 and had logged approximately 10,000 flight hours at the time of the incident.

References

Aviation accidents and incidents in Norway CHC Helikopter Service accidents and incidents Accidents and incidents involving the Sikorsky S-61 Aviation accidents and incidents in 1978 1978 in Norway Aviation accidents and incidents in the North Sea Airliner accidents and incidents caused by in-flight structural failure June 1978 in Europe Aviation accident stubs
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