Qualla: British Airways Helicopters Flight 5918

British Airways Helicopters Flight 5918: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England, CC BY 2.0. The flight was supposed to take twenty minutes. The Penzance to St Mary's helicopter run had operated six days a week, twelve return flights a day, for decades. On the morning of 16 July 1983, the Sikorsky S-61 Oscar November lifted off from Penzance Heliport at roughly 11:10 am with 23 passengers and 3 crew aboard. Twenty-five minutes later it hit the sea 1.5 nautical miles short of the Isles of Scilly coast. The impact broke off the stabilising sponsons on either side of the fuselage and tore open the floor. Water poured in. The helicopter rolled and sank. Of the 26 people on board, 20 died. Six survived because the two pilots, both injured, kept them alive in the water for nearly an hour until the St Mary's lifeboat arrived.

Image: Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England | CC BY 2.0

British Airways Helicopters Flight 5918: The People on Oscar November

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit calflier001, CC BY-SA 2.0. Captain Dominic Lawlor was 37 and had flown the Penzance-St Mary's route over fifty times. Captain Neil Charleton was 30 and had flown it over a hundred times. Cabin attendant Robin Lander was 22. The 23 passengers had boarded for what was, for many, a holiday trip to one of Engl...

Image: calflier001 | CC BY-SA 2.0

British Airways Helicopters Flight 5918: What Went Wrong in the Fog

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit calflier001, CC BY-SA 2.0. The morning had been bad for visibility from the start. The earlier flight, Delta Alpha, had been delayed from 7:50 to 10:46 am before conditions cleared enough to depart under visual flight rules. Lawlor waited until he had confirmation that Delta Alpha had landed safely before ...

Image: calflier001 | CC BY-SA 2.0

British Airways Helicopters Flight 5918: The Hour in the Water

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit calflier001, CC BY-SA 2.0. Both sponsons were torn off in the impact, breaking the seal that should have let the helicopter float. Water flooded in through the broken floor. The fuselage rolled over and went down. None of the six survivors had managed to retrieve a life jacket. Both pilots were injured but...

Image: calflier001 | CC BY-SA 2.0

British Airways Helicopters Flight 5918: The Aftermath and What It Changed

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit calflier001, CC BY-SA 2.0. Matt Lethbridge, the coxswain of the St Mary's lifeboat, was singled out for particular commendation by David Harris, the Member of Parliament for St Ives. The Accidents Investigation Branch investigator, D.A. Cooper, concluded the helicopter had been mechanically sound and that ...

Image: calflier001 | CC BY-SA 2.0