UK Offshore Helicopter Safety Action Group (OHSAG) Oct 2014 Minutes

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has published the minutes of the latest, 28 Oct 2014, meeting of the Offshore Helicopter Safety Action Group (OHSAG).

The OHSAG was formed as a result of the ‘Civil Aviation Authority Safety Review of Offshore Public Transport Helicopter Operations in Support of the Exploitation of Oil and Gas’ (CAP1145).

Items to note:

  1. The Irish Aviation Authority are said to have signed up to the CAP1145 actions and are to be invited to the next meeting.  The IAA have recently issued an Aeronautical Notice on offshore helicopter safety.
  2. UK CAA are to ‘investigate further operations of foreign operators in the UK who may not comply with CAP1145’.
  3. A review of progress on CAP1145 implementation is due in January 2015.  The ‘Challenge Team’ that was part of the original review reconvened last month (though sharp eyed readers will note that one of the original team now works for UK CAA). That team has requested more detail and for the progress review to be more forward looking.
  4. The OHSAG asked for emphasis on ‘stabilising’ survivability matters and putting an emphasis on actions that minimise such survivability circumstances (a point made by some at this year’s Oil and Gas UK Aviation Seminar).
  5. Studies are underway on the issue of smaller helidecks and (using Cranfield University) on fire fighting on Normally Unattended Installations (NUIs).
  6. Further work is to be done on communication (confidence building was the key theme of this years Oil & Gas UK Aviation Seminar)

The next meeting is January 2015.

Aerossurance covered the issue of the previous minutes (with links to all prior meeting minutes) and a recent  Oil & Gas UK briefing session here (which now includes video of the CAA presentation and panel sessions).

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Aerossurance is an Aberdeen based aviation consultancy.  For expert advice on offshore helicopter safety and contracting matters, contact us at enquiries@aerossurance.com