A helicopter crash that killed 11 oil workers and two crew off the Norwegian coast was due to a technical fault, not human error, Norway's Accident Investigation Board says.
An Airbus H225 Super Puma helicopter ferrying passengers from a Norwegian oil platform crashed in the North Sea on Friday, killing all 13 people on board.
"We are as certain as we can be that a technical error caused the accident. We don't think it was due to human misinterpretations," the director of the board's aviation department, Kaare Halvorsen, told reporters on Tuesday.
He also confirmed statements by the helicopter operator, CHC, that the two pilots did not have time to send an emergency mayday message before the crash.
Separately, aviation sources said the European Aviation Safety Agency, which regulates the airworthiness of helicopters, was discussing with Airbus whether to issue a directive ordering checks on the Super Puma.
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Airbus, which had initially urged a halt to all Super Puma flights, said on Monday commercial operations could resume outside UK and Norway.
The Super Puma is the workhorse of the oil industry, ferrying workers to and from offshore installations. Helicopter operators said they had been able to maintain service despite the flight bans by using Sikorsky helicopters.
Separately, oil firm Shell said on Monday it was suspending all flights in Norway with CHC, but would continue using the firm in other countries.
"As a precaution, it is decided to temporarily suspend all CHC ... passenger flights for Shell in Norway," a company spokeswoman said.
