Remembering Cougar Helicopters Flight 491
On March 12, 2009, the helicopter ditched en route to the SeaRose FPSO in the White Rose oil field and Hibernia Platform in the Hibernia oilfield off the coast of Newfoundland 55 kilometres east-southeast of St. John's.
Of the eighteen aboard, only one survived.
A Mayday call was issued after the aircraft reported zero oil pressure in the main gearbox at 9:40 a.m. The flight attempted to return to St. John's but went down at 9:48 a.m.
The aircraft was spotted, floating upside down, by a Provincial Airlines ice patrol airplane 25 minutes later. It later sank in 178 metres of water.
On 9 February 2011, the Transportation Safety Board released its final report on the accident. It identified 16 separate factors that led to the fatal crash but no single one was to blame.