Copterline

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Copterline

IATA '	ICAO 'AAQ	Callsign Copterline
Founded		2002
Hubs		Helsinki Hernesaari Heliport
Fleet size		9
Destinations		2
Headquarters		Helsinki, Finland
Key people
Website: http://www.copterline.com/

Copterline Helicopter rising from Helsinki-Malmi airport

Copterline is Finland's largest helicopter airline. In 2004 the company ferried over 75,000 passengers.

1 History
2 Services
3 Incidents and accidents
4 Fleet
5 External links

[edit] History

In spring 2004, the company had been restricted from commercial flights in bad weather conditions, due to concerns about pilot qualifications, but the restriction have since been lifted.

[edit] Services

Copterline maintains hourly passenger flights across the Gulf of Finland between Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn, Estonia between 7-20, or 9-17 on weekends. The trip takes 18 minutes for a 12-seat helicopter.

[edit] Incidents and accidents

Main article: 10 August 2005 helicopter crash near Tallinn

On August 10, 2005, a Sikorsky S-76 of Copterline crashed into the sea near Tallinn, Estonia, three to four minutes after taking off. The craft was carrying 14 people, all of whom were killed: six Finnish, four Estonian and two American passengers, and two Finnish crewmembers. The reason for the disaster was the failure of the power steering system of the American-built helicopter. According to Estonian authorities, no distress signals of any kind were received. However, after examining the helicopter's black box it has been reported that the pilots had attempted sending one, but for unknown reasons it was never received. The black box also revealed that the pilots had remained calm and attempted a safe landing in a "by the book" fashion.