A special review of UK offshore helicopter safety by the Civil Aviation Authority has concluded that, despite having more accidents than some of their comparable foreign counterparts, UK operators are statistically just as safe.
Nevertheless, the CAA has published 32 actions and many more recommendations to reduce risk exposure and increase passenger survivability in the event of ditching.
It concludes that UK offshore operations are "of an equivalent level of safety to similar operations throughout the world". That includes a specific comparison with Norway, produced in conjunction with the Norwegian civil aviation authority.
The study was a reaction to growing industry concern over safety following the fatal 23 August 2013 crash of an Airbus Helicopters AS332L2 Super Puma into the sea on approach to Sumburgh, Shetland, and several other fatal accidents in the UK sector over the past four years.
A number of the recommended actions will be enforced by the CAA from specific dates. From 1 June 2014, except when attending to an emergency, the CAA says operators will not be permitted to carry passengers in any seats except those next to the push-out side windows that serve as emergency exits in the event of ditching, unless the occupants are provided with enhanced emergency breathing equipment, or the helicopter has improved floatation equipment fitted. This means the centre cabin seating may not be used except with this extra provision, potentially cutting capacity on flights.
This change is in response to protests from offshore workers who dread the centre cabin seats because of the reduced chance of escape in a ditching in which the helicopter inverts.
Additionally, helicopters will not be dispatched to or from an offshore site if the waves and swell surrounding it are worse than sea state 6. Also operators may not carry passengers whose “body size”, when wearing the required safety equipment for trips to and from offshore sites, “is incompatible with push-out window emergency exit size”.
Other recommendations include a review of the effectiveness of pilot instrument flying training, and a programme to improve helidecks, their lighting, and guidance for approach and landing.
The CAA says it wants to “promote and support the implementation of the results of the research on helideck lighting, operations to moving helidecks, differential GPS guided offshore approaches and helicopter terrain awareness warning systems.” The agency says it will “seek to ensure funding for the research” to achieve these objectives.
Bond Offshore Helicopters has welcomed the CAA review. “Today’s report by the CAA complements the work being done by the Joint Operators’ Review, which we set up together with our colleagues in Bristow Helicopters and CHC Helicopter last September. [This] was established to share best practice and to identify, recommend and drive further safety improvements.”
Norwegian industrial safety consultant Sintef published in 2012 a similar review of North Sea helicopter operations in the 1999-2009 period and observed: “It is striking that the UK sector has had 10 accidents while Norway has had only one.”
Although accepting the difference could contain an element of chance, it added: “In Norway [it is relevant to] ask whether important steps toward increased safety have been made in recent years, while the progress in the UK has stagnated, perhaps even gone backward.”
Source: FlightGlobal.com
