A Cougar Sikorsky S-92 on the flight deck of an offshore oil rig. Photo by Greg Locke (C) 2009
It's been a rough week in Newfoundland with the crash of a Cougar Helicopters Sikorsky S-92 in the North Atlantic 67km from St. John's. The helicopter was carrying oil rig workers to the Hibernia and White Rose offshore oil facilities 300km from St. John's on the Grand Banks.There was only one survivor out of the eighteen on board. Sixteen are still missing and one deceased has been recovered.
The search and rescue effort has been called off and now the story becomes one of crash investigation and memorial services in the weeks to come. In our offshore work we've flown a lot with the Cougar crews. Their talent and professionalism is what makes much of our offshore photography possible. We've also worked and done our offshore training along side the people on the oil rigs and production platforms. That makes it extra tough to cover the crash as a news story. It's personal.
This week we've contributed work (stories, pictures and analysis) to Reuters, NL Press , Toronto Star.and CTV News.
Major Denis McGuire of the Joint Search and Rescue Centre, right, and Rick Burt, manager of Cougar Helicopters leave a news conference in St. John's, Newfoundland. Photo by Greg Locke 2009 C