GAME TRIBUTE TO SUPER PUMA COPTER CRASH VICTIM WILL RAISE CASH FOR CHARITIES

A charity football match will be held this weekend in memory of a young oil worker who was killed in the Super Puma helicopter tragedy.

Stuart Wood, who was known as Woody, was one of the 16 men who died on April 1st 2009, when Bond flight 85N crashed into the North Sea off the coast of Peterhead.

The death of the 27-year-old, of Brownhill Drive, Newmachar, had a huge impact on his home village where the local football team decided to retire his number four shirt as a mark of respect.

A tribute match between the Newmachar United amateur team and Highland League champions Buckie Thistle in July, had to be called off because of bad weather.

The fixture which will raise money for RNLI and Brain Injury Grampian, has now been rescheduled for Saturday.

Mr Woods's father Joe said: "I used to play for Buckie Thistle and they said they would quite like to do something.  We're expecting a big crowd on Saturday - hopefully it will raise lots of money for the charities."

There will be no entrance fee for the match, but a collection will be held in aid of the charities.

A special programme has been produced to raise money for the good causes.

A Buckie Thistle strip will also be auctioned.

Mr Wood was a case-hole field engineer with Expro North Sea and had worked with the company since 2002.

He was returning from BP's Miller Platform when the Super Puma carrying 14 workers and two pilots suffered a catastrophic gearbox failure.

A preliminary Air Accidents Investigation Branch report on the crash found engineers had wrongly identified debris that could have alerted them to the imminent failure of the aircraft's gear-box.  All Super Pumas were grounded for urgent repairs as a result.

The match at Charles Gordon Park, Newmachar with kick off at 2.30pm.

Report by Gillian Duncan, Press & Journal