Leonardo AW139 crash near offshore west of Erha FPSO, Lagos, Nigeria

The helicopter left Lagos for the Bonga floating production storage and offloading vessel with twelve on board, including two crew. In the cruise at 2,500 feet an autopilot number two fault appeared on the crew alerting system. The recorder captured five disengagements and re-engagements of the autopilot in two minutes, and a reset of the master generators failed to clear it. Autopilot number one then failed and the nose dropped. Over the next few minutes the aircraft climbed to about 3,500 feet, descended rapidly to 330 feet in 45 seconds, then climbed again, recording pitch angles between 28 degrees up and 25 degrees down and a maximum roll of 37 degrees right. The captain flew manually while the first officer worked the flight control system, and level flight was recovered about nine minutes later. Both autopilots were eventually re-engaged and the crew made an air return, landing at Lagos. Nobody was hurt.