City park site for memorial to helicopter crash victims

A MEMORIAL is to be erected in Aberdeen as a lasting tribute to the 16 men who were killed in a Super Puma helicopter crash in the North Sea last year.

The two pilots and 14 oil workers were killed in Scotland's worst helicopter crash for 20 years, when the Bond-operated aircraft plunged into the sea on 1 April on its way back to Aberdeen from the Miller oil platform. More than half the victims lived in the city or surrounding area.

Oil & Gas UK, the pan-industry trade body, yesterday announced that a memorial to the men who lost their lives on Flight 85N would be erected in Johnston Gardens, off Viewfield Road.

The memorial, in the form of an obelisk in black granite inscribed with the names of those who died on the flight, will be officially unveiled at a commemoration ceremony in mid to late March.

Malcolm Webb, the chief executive of Oil & Gas UK and chairman of the Flight 85N Memorial Fund Committee, said:

"Nothing can compensate the families of those who perished… but it is the sincere hope of all of the memorial fund committee that this symbol of remembrance in Johnston Gardens will serve as a memorial to their loved ones."