Offshore Helicopter Accident Ghana 8 May 2014 & The Importance of Emergency Response
Offshore Helicopter Accident Ghana 8 May 2014 & The Importance of Emergency Response On 8 May 2014 Airbus Helicopters AS365N Dauphin helicopter TU-HAA was lost en route from Takoradi, Ghana to the Transocean GSF Jack Ryan drill ship. Sadly only 4 of the 8 occupants were rescued. While it will take some time for full details of this accident to emerge, it is a reminder to companies that contract for helicopter services of the critical importance of maintaining an effective emergency response capability. Takaoradi is a popular base for offshore helicopters in the burgeoning Ghanaian offshore market. Ghana is not the only emerging target for offshore exploration, with considerable effort being expending by oil companies (large and small) up and down the coast of West Africa and East Africa. Among the questions to ask are: How will we be alerted? What assets are available for search and rescue? Have we documented, but more importantly TESTED, our Emergency Response Plan (ERP)? While aircraft carry Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs), in sudden accidents they have historically proven unreliable. An Aerossurance study of helicopter accidents in the Gulf of Mexico showed that most fixed ELTs failed to activate automatically. Controlled ditchings turned out to be too ‘soft’ to activate the ‘g’ (or ‘crash’) switch. Often the ELT transmitter is mounted forwards but the antenna in on the tail boom, and so the cabling does not survive a ‘more dynamic’ accident. In one fixed wing accident in Alaska the National Transportation Safety Board found that the fixed ELT transmitter box had only been secured by a Velcro strap and had broken free, severing the connection to the antenna. As ELT’s do not work when they are submerged, when operating offshore, if the emergency floatation system does not deploy then even a perfectly functioning ELT will be lost below the waves before a satellite fix can be obtained. While Automatically Deployable ELTs (ADELTs) have been common in Europe and on large offshore helicopters, their performance has been patchy as described by CAA here. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) have a Rule Making Team (RMT.0274) that is going to look at ‘ELT installation, location and activation’ generally. A more reliable method of tracking is to use a satellite tracking system. Although there is much debate after the MH370 accident of making satellite tracking mandatory for airliners, extremely cost effective technology is available today and widely used in the oil & gas and resource sectors on helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. Using sat tracking means that no matter what happens to the aircraft when an accident occurs, the track up to that point is captured back at a monitoring centre, greatly aiding the search and rescue effort. Simply fitting the kit is only part of the story, however. One choice is the frequency of position updates. Most sat tracking providers may a minuscule charge for each position transmissions. While all reputable air operators recognise the benefit of regular position reports it has been know for some operators to pay for the minimum. As a customer for air services, not only is it wise to specify sat tracking but also agree a transmission frequency. Another factor is who is going to monitor the progress of a flight and what do they do if an anomaly occurs? Accidents have occurred where the system was unmonitored and no automated...
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