The bulk of the helicopter was recovered on 1st March along with the flight recorders which were sent to the UK's Civil Aviation Authority. They have since been downloaded successfully according to the Norwegian Safety Investigation Authority (NSIA) which confirmed the investigation is continuing.
The NSIA warned the investigation was still at an early stage, advising it was “too early to draw any conclusions” however, thus far it “has not observed any technical fault which contributed to the accident”. The NSIA added, “We have downloaded data and it is currently being analysed. We have had interviews with some of the crew from the helicopter,”.
The accident happened during a training search and rescue flight, approximately 15 nautical miles west of Bergen, Norway. The helicopter, registration LN-OIJ, was operating with six crew members onboard at the time of the incident. One fatality was confirmed on the day of the crash and the other five crew members have suffered varying levels of injuries.
Bristow Helicopters stated "Our thoughts are with all those affected during this incredibly difficult period. At this time, the full resources of Bristow’s incident response team are being mobilized. The company is in the process of contacting and providing assistance to family members of those onboard and fully cooperating with authorities responding to the incident. Our highest priority is to take care of our crew and their family members and provide them with any assistance needed."
Flight Global reports that images of the wreckage indicate the main rotor and tail rotor were spinning at the time of impact. The S-92 was fitted with automatic floats which should deploy in events of this kind, however, images of LN-OIJ show these floats had not deployed.
