CONFUSION surrounds the safety of the Super Puma L2, following the crash that saw four oil workers die off Shetland.
The helicopters remains out of bounds to passengers despite the aviation regulator saying they are fit to fly.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) issued a statement nine days ago saying it did not believe the accident was caused by an "airworthiness or technical problem" based on the information available, and sanctioned a return to the air for all Super Pumas, including the L2.
But the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), which is leading the probe into the crash, told the Sunday Herald it "can't figure out" why the CAA arrived at that verdict, saying it was too early to rule out a technical problem as a factor.
The AAIB insisted after its initial investigations it was too early to draw conclusions on what caused the Super Puma AS332 L2 to crash.
On Thursday, an AAIB special bulletin again failed to be clear over whether a technical problem was a factor in the accident.
It said: "To date, no evidence of a causal technical failure has been identified, however, detailed examination of the CVFDR (cockpit voice and flight data recorder) and the helicopter wreckage is continuing."
The oil industry's Helicopter Safety Steering Group (HSSG) has not removed a recommendation to voluntarily suspend the use of the 13 Super Puma L2s for passengers. The L2s are currently only being used for non-passenger flights.
Union sources say there are concerns there is still no clear position over whether there is a technical issue.
The HSSG is not expected to make any recommendation about the L2 until late this week at the earliest. The next scheduled HSSG meeting of any kind is expected on Friday.
It has sanctioned lifting the Super Puma passenger-flight ban for all other Super Pumas, including 19 EC225 helicopters, one AS332 L1 and a number of AS355s that serve the North Sea.
Unite union's regional industrial officer John Taylor said: "There should not be a decision on the L2 until there is concrete information that there is no mechanical fault. We haven't got that yet. What the AAIB report says is that it wasn't this and it wasn't that - but it doesn't say what it was."
Aberdeen North MP Frank Doran believes that, following discussions with industry representatives, it was looking "more and more likely" that a technical fault was not a factor, but added: "It is it too early to say [that there is not technical issue]; to be absolutely cast-iron certain.
"There might be a different message from the black box. But they [the AAIB] have control of that, and they should by now have some preliminary ideas ... I would have preferred to see a more definite result [from the AAIB] and a longer time period [of grounding of Super Pumas].
"At the same time, I have to accept that there are no indications yet that there was a technical fault, so it is difficult to find a reason [to continue grounding] other than the reaction of the workforce."
Doran has approached Patrick McLoughlin, the Secretary of State for Transport, to call for a Piper Alpha-style public inquiry in the wake of the Shetland crash.
He said: "Eurocopter have something like 800 Super Pumas of one model or another flying around the world and none of them have a safety record like ours, so that's another reason for having a public inquiry, because there is something fundamentally wrong here.
"It needs to be done soon, but soon in civil service terms tends to be months, rather than weeks."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article