Industry body Oil and Gas UK is forming the Helicopter Accident Issues Task Group, following the North Sea crash of the Bond Offshore Super Puma in which two crew and 14 passengers died. The announcement came as the UK's fleet of Super Pumas began returning to service after gearbox modifications.

The group consists of senior industry managers, mainly representatives of the companies directly involved in the disaster, and some members of Oil and Gas UK Its aims are to act on behalf of the industry to share information and advice about helicopter accidents and to define possible policies and practices.

The group will be chaired by Bob Keiller, ceo of PSN, which lost worker James Costello in the tragedy, and co-chairman of Oil and Gas UK. It will meet at least once a month. Keiller says: "We feel a need to come together as an industry in the aftermath of the appalling loss of life to review, discuss and, if necessary, take action. Even though we may not always have early answers to every question, we are determined to ensure that any lessons are shared across the industry as quickly as possible."

The crash came less than two months after a Super Puma helicopter with 18 people on board ditched in the Etap field 125 miles east of Aberdeen. All survived the 18 February incident.

BP and helicopter operator Bond Offshore have been conducting a review of all joint operations. The wreckage has been moved to AAIB headquarters in Farnborough. The Super Puma had been returning from BP's Miller oil platform off the Aberdeenshire coast when it crashed. An initial report indicated there had been a gearbox failure.

Oil and Gas UK confirmed that the two types of Super Puma in the 25-strong fleet operating in the UK were returned to service after checks by ground staff and modifications to gearboxes. Inspection and modifi-cations on the aircraft's gearboxes were carried out after Eurocopter issued an alert service bulletin.

The British Airline Pilots' Association has called for a safety summit involving the industry, helicopters pilots and independent safety experts and has written to Scottish first minister Alex Salmond.

The Civil Aviation Authority blocked the use of personal locator beacons on passengers in case they interfered with the more powerful beacon signal from downed aircraft. But Oil and Gas UK says that finding a technical solution that would allow the personal beacons to be safely reinstated was a matter of priority.

Eurocopter says there are 638 Super Pumas in service worldwide, including 136 working offshore. Bond Offshore took delivery of the world's 700th operational Super Puma, citing the helicopter's safety, high speed, payload and reliability. The company has worked with Super Puma family since 1983 when it began operating the AS332 L1. It regarded the choice of the EC225 as the logical next step in renewing its fleet and ordered two with an option for a third.