Aerossurance: Our Top 20 Articles of 2015 As we start the new year we look back on the 20 articles that proved most popular with our readers in 2015. In reverse order: Number 20: Building St Helena Airport – An Industrial Scale ‘Grand Design’ This started with the building of the first airport on the volcanic […]
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UK BOSIET/FOET Cat-A CA-EBS HUET Update Category A Compressed Air Emergency Breathing Systems (CA-EBS) were introduced for helicopter passengers flying offshore over the UK Continental Shelf in September 2014. This followed the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) North Sea Review, which resulted in the CAP1145 report. Oil and Gas UK, Step Change in Safety, OPITO, the International Association of Drilling Contractors
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Fatal Arctic Bo105 CFIT gives lessons on low level ops, compliance with mx data, cold water survivability, alerting, data recorders and regulatory oversight.
Canadian Coast Guard Helicopter Accident: CFIT, Survivability and More Read Post »
UK Offshore Helicopter Safety Action Group (OHSAG) October 2015 Minutes The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has just published the minutes of the 16 October 2015 meeting of the Offshore Helicopter Safety Action Group (OHSAG). This is the third and last of the year (compared to six in 2014), postponed from July 2015. The OHSAG was formed as a result of the ‘Civil
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So You Think The Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is Non-Hostile? The Gulf of Mexico (GOM), off the coast of Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas in particular, remains a busy area for offshore helicopter operations with over 2 million passengers carried and nearly 300,000 flying hours last year (see our article: Helicopter Ops and Safety – Gulf Of
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We look at some of the problems of error management and ask if we are still making the error management mistakes James Reason warned of in 1997 (spoiler: some organisations are). We also look at drift and how some have failed to grasp its more than poor compliance.
Back to the Future: Error Management Read Post »
Bell 407 Power Loss GOM Ditching: NTSB (RLC B407 N373RL) The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has reported on the ditching of a Bell 407 offshore helicopter in the Gulf Of Mexico (GOM) on 11 November 2014. The aircraft, N373RL operated by Rotorcraft Leasing Company (RLC), ditched following a partial power loss shortly after take off from an installation
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PDG Helicopters Commence UK & Eire Lighthouse Support Contract On 1 December 2015 PDG Helicopters commenced a £13mn helicopter support contract for the three UK and Eire General Lighthouse Authorities (GLAs): The Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, known as the Northern Lighthouse Board (Scotland and the Isle of Man) whose history goes back to 1768 The Corporation of Trinity House, known
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S-92A Emergency Landing: MGB Oil Checklist Recommendation Earlier this month the Norwegian Accident Investigation Board (AIBN) issued their report into an emergency landing of Sikorsky S-92A LN-ONW, operated by Bristow Norway on 4 October 2013. The crew almost ditched due to false warnings created by a single tripped circuit breaker. The Incident The S-92A was returning from the
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Norwegian Survival Suits: Suited for Safety The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Agency (PSA), has published a piece on the history of survival suits in Norway in their latest Dialogue magazine. Amusingly their first illustration highlights a hazard unique to early survival suits that we discussed after the 2014 Oil & Gas UK annual aviation seminar, namely cigarette
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HeliOffshore Launch HUMS Best Practice Guide The offshore helicopter safety organisation, HeliOffshore, has today launched a Health & Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) Best Practice Guide to standardise and improve HUMS use worldwide. The main element of helicopter HUMS is Vibration Health Monitoring (VHM), designed to detect developing mechanical failures in safety critical transmission and rotor systems components.
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New NHV Heliport Under Construction in Aberdeen At a time of low oil price it might be surprising to hear that a new heliport is being constructed at Aberdeen Airport in Scotland, but that is what is currently happening. Belgian operator NHV, the launch customer for the EC175 (now H175), has previously been reported to have been keen to establish
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CHIRP Critical of an Oil Company’s Commercial Practices The CHIRP Charitable Trust, who run the UK’s Confidential Human Factors Incident Reporting Programme (CHIRP), has highlighted two “of the many” reports received relating to an oil company changing its North Sea helicopter operator for the second time in three years. CHIRP do not name the oil company.
CHIRP Critical of an Oil Company’s Commercial Practices Read Post »
HeliOffshore Progress One Year On We first reported on the plan to create HeliOffshore in June 2014. HeliOffshore was formally launched on 21 October 2014 in London and held its first AGM and conference in Lisbon in May 2015. When membership was opened up beyond helicopter operators in January 2015, Aerossurance is pleased to have been one
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UK CAA Helideck Developments The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) are considering changing how offshore helidecks are approved and assessing the fire-fighting provision on Normally Unattended Installations (NUIs). The former activity is subject to a public consultation and that latter is being examined by a Offshore Helicopter Safety Action Group (OHSAG) working group. Helideck Qualified
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CHC FY2015 Results & Restructuring On 29 June 2015 CHC Group (NYSE: HELI), the parent company of CHC Helicopter, reported on Fiscal Year 2015 (to end April 2015). The headlines are: Full-year revenue down 3% to $1.7 billion with a net loss of $795 million (compared to $1.78 billion and a net loss of $171 million in
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Helicopter Ops and Safety – Gulf of Mexico 2014 The Helicopter Safety Advisory Conference (HSAC) has been publishing data on the Gulf of Mexico (‘GOM’) offshore helicopter fleet and its safety since 1995. Helicopter Operations: GOM Fleet Data They report that flying activity has remained “relatively constant” for the last several years, with just under 300k flying
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Bristow Celebrates 60 Years On 24 June 2015 Bristow celebrated being 60 years old. That was the anniversary of the incorporation of Bristow Helicopters Limited in 1955 by its founder Alan Bristow. The company has picked out some highlights of the company history: Alan Bristow formed Bristow Helicopters in 1955 after securing a contract to supply helicopter crews for
Scottish Court Orders Release of Sumburgh Helicopter CVFDR A Scottish Court has ordered that the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) release the combined Cockpit Voice and Flight Data Recorder (CVFDR) from a fatal 2013 AS332L2 Super Puma offshore helicopter accident at Sumburgh to prosecutors, who will use the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to “provide an expert opinion on
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UAS View of Lomond Offshore Installation Stunning ‘drone’* footage of the BG Group Lomond installation in the Central North Sea has been uploaded to YouTube by Gary Hay. Alongside the platform, joined by a ‘bridge’, is the semi-submersible accommodation vessel Borgholm Dolphin, hence the helideck on Lomond is marked as closed due to the infringement of the
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UK Offshore Helicopter Safety Action Group (OHSAG) April 2015 Minutes The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has just published the minutes of the 28 April 2015 meeting of the Offshore Helicopter Safety Action Group (OHSAG), the second of the year. The OHSAG was formed as a result of the ‘Civil Aviation Authority Safety Review of Offshore Public Transport Helicopter Operations in
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EASA North Sea Offshore Helicopter Operations Review Today the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) open the sealed bids for a new research study, EASA.2015.HVP.01, entitled: Helicopter North Sea Operations Management Current Practices Safety Review EASA say: Apart from analysis of past accidents and incidents, the need of more detailed and systematic analysis of the practices
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FSF Launches Offshore Helicopter Operations Standard (BARSOHO) The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) has launched an offshore version of their award-winning Basic Aviation Risk Standard. Aerossurance is proud to have worked on the development of this standard (available to download on the FSF website). In their press release they say: The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) announced
FSF Launches Offshore Helicopter Standard (BARSOHO) Read Post »
Plunging Oil Prices – Is it All Bad? This tantalising question was the theme for an evening event at the Norwegian-British Chamber of Commerce in Aberdeen on 27 May 2015. The evening included excellent presentations from Jan Erik Berre of DNB and Birgitte Karlsen & Rob Jardine-Brown from Wikborg Rein. Some of our takeaways from the evening: Downturns
Plunging Oil Prices – Is it All Bad? Read Post »
Oil & Gas UK Aviation Seminar 2015 Oil and Gas UK hold their annual aviation seminar in Aberdeen on 2 June. Aerossurance covered last year’s event, which focused on rebuilding confidence and we will be attending again this year. For this year they pose the question: What progress has been made since last year’s Aviation Seminar to
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