(Adds Statoil, Sikorsky comments)
OSLO/LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Norway's Statoil said on Tuesday it expected to gradually resume flights ofSikorsky S-92 helicopters it uses to transport offshore workers,after all flights were stopped earlier in the day for safetychecks.
The Sikorsky Aircraft Corp, which manufactures thehelicopters, issued a service notice on Tuesday, saying the tailrotor and bearing assemblies of the S-92 should be checkedfollowing an incident in Scotland last December.
Sikorsky is a unit of Lockheed Martin Corp.
"We are starting to resume flights gradually this afternoonas helicopters are checked and put back in flight," Statoil'sspokesman said.
The decision to stop the flights meant Statoil's workerswere left stranded on oil platforms as the S-92 is the onlymodel used by the company to transport people offshore Norway.
Statoil stopped using H225 Super Puma helicopters, aworkhorse of the offshore oil industry, following a fatal crashlast April.
Sikorsky said the inspections could take about 11 hours, butthe time depended on each operator.
"We have already been informed that many operators havealready completed these inspections, and we anticipate themajority of the fleet will have the initial inspectionaccomplished within the next 24-48 hours," a spokesman said inan email.
In Britain, where S-92 flights were also stopped, the oiland gas industry lobby group said the inspections would createsome "short-term disruption to operations" in the North Sea.
One of Britain's offshore operators, Shell, said itwas working on alternative flight provision.
Sikorsky said in a separate note it was working closely withcustomers to determine the root cause of a problem with the tailrotor during a landing on a rig off Scotland on Dec. 28.
A spokesman for Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branchsaid the authority was still investigating the incident nearAberdeen.
Both Statoil and Shell said their offshore production wasn'taffected by the suspension of flights. (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Karolin Schaps; Editing byStine Jacobsen and Mark Potter)