HeliOffshore 2022 Conference Review
After two years of virtual events, over 140 delegates from HeliOffshore’s international membership gathered in Cascais, outside of Lisbon, 23-24 April 2022 for the association’s annual conference. Aerossurance, as a committed HeliOffshore member, has attended all six in-person HeliOffshore conferences. HeliOffshore, founded in 2014, is the global collaborative safety association for the offshore helicopter industry. This year’s theme was “a safe and sustainable transition to 2040”.
Offshore Helicopter Safety Performance
Among the good news was that the industry has seen a significant positive improvement in safety performance in recent years (the subject of HeliOffshore’s eagerly awaited fourth safety performance report due out shortly). There have however been two fatal accidents in the offshore community in 2022 (one in the US and one in Brazil, with 3 fatalities in total).
Safety Learning
As part of a commitment to moving collaborative safety learning to a new level, two operators did a joint briefing on an lessons learning exercise they had done with HeliOffshore after one non-fatal accident and one serious incident in two different regions of the world that both involved approaches to helidecks at night. Further enhancements are also underway to the HeliOffshore Safety Intelligence Programme (HSIP), including a programme of proactive aggregated flight data analysis on the Sikorsky S-92A fleet.
Safety Culture and Human Performance
Sessions over both days discussed overlapping themes of sustainable safety culture and enabling human performance. This included mention of some particularly interesting research into “the re-design of the Just Culture process in an international energy company“. This excellent research, published in 2018, had already caught Aerossurance’s attention as a rare, peer reviewed, study that assessed how the implementation of Just Culture procedures were actually working in an organisation (looking at 353 cases). Spoiler alert: the procedures based on the original logic of James Reason were being routinely misapplied and the research went on to discuss how this was corrected. Such misapplication is something we commonly see in the aviation sector, with the process (often based on proprietary flowcharts) actually increases the focus on the capability (or not) of individuals rather than on driving system improvements.
Safety Leadership
An inspirational high point was a presentation by John Amaechi OBE, the psychologist, former former professional basketball player and author of The Promises of Giants (discussed in this VIDEO). He described a concept of ‘step theory’, namely that in life, everything you do is either a step closer to your vision or a step away from it and the direction you take is your choice. Amaechi advocates developing introspection, interpersonal and organisational abilities in order to enhance leadership skills and sharing ideas before you are ready (trusting your collaborators to contribute to refining the ideas). As he has explained in interviews:
Leadership is not a title or role. It’s a promise of a kind of experience. It says if I only have the power to influence these two people, I will wield that wisely and well.
After that presentation, HeliOffshore announced a new safety leadership bursary. Aerossurance immediately committed to co-funding that excellent initiative, more details of which will be announced later this year.
Next Generation of People & Helicopters and the Rise of Renewables
A number of participants commented on the need to thinking about developing the next generation of professionals in our community. Others highlighted that the average age of the offshore fleet is increasing due to the minimal number of new aircraft purchased in recent years (especially in the heavy category). One bright spot is the likely growth in support of renewable energy (a sector Aerossurance has been supporting since 2016). It was good to see G+ and the recently renamed OEUK contribute to a panel session.
In Conclusion
In his comments on the conference Tim Rolfe, HeliOffshore’s CEO, said:
As our industry evolves to incorporate new sectors, new technologies and new talent, it is essential we develop the tools and resources we need for the years ahead.
The conference was generously sponsored by Airbus, Bell, GE, Leonardo, OMNI Helicopters International, Pratt & Whitney and Safran.
Safety Resources
The European Safety Promotion Network Rotorcraft (ESPN-R) has a helicopter safety discussion group on LinkedIn.
The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) BARSOHO offshore helicopter Safety Performance Requirements are detailed, well proven, contract standards for offshore crew change flights, SAR. medevac and helicopter hoist operations that aligns with the HeliOffshore Safety Performance Model. The alignment stems from the original BARSOHO bow-tie model, developed for the FSF by Aerossurance, being discussed on the first morning of the first HeliOffshore conference on 9 May 2015, also in Portugal.
You may also find these Aerossurance articles of interest:
- Helideck Heave Ho!
- Loss of Control, Twice, by Offshore Helicopter off Nova Scotia
- Strictly Scheduled: S-92A Start-Up Incident
- Offshore Night Near Miss: Marine Pilot Transfer Unintended Descent
- BFU Investigate S-76B Descending to 20ft at 40 kts En Route in Poor Visibility
- 2009 Newfoundland S-92A C-GZCH Accident: A Failure of Design and Certification
- Technology Friend or Foe – Automation in Offshore Helicopter Operations and Aerossurance Marks RAeS 150th Anniversary by Sponsoring Rotorcraft Automation Conference
- AAIB Report on 2013 Sumburgh Helicopter Accident
- ADA AW139 A6-AWN Ditching off UAE, 29 April 2017: Final Report
- Night Offshore Windfarm HEMS Winch Training CFIT
- NTSB Report on Bizarre 2012 US S-76B Ditching
- Sikorsky S-92A Loss of Tail Rotor Control Events
- S-92A Emergency Landing: MGB Oil Checklist Recommendation
- SAR Helicopter Loss of Control at Night: ATSB Report
- NTSB Investigation into AW139 Bahamas Night Take Off Accident
- Loss of Bell 412 off Brazil Remains Unexplained
- RLC B407 Reverses into Sister Ship at GOM Heliport
- CAP1145 Helicopter Water Impact Survivability Statistics – A Critique
- Hong Kong Harbour AW139 Ditching – HKCAD Report Issued
- Dramatic Malaysian S-76C 2013 Ditching Video
- In-Flight Flying Control Failure: Indonesian Sikorsky S-76C+ PK-FUP
- Safety Lessons from a Fatal Helicopter Bird Strike: Sikorsky S-76C++ N748P, 4 January 2009
- S-92A Collision with Obstacle while Taxying
- Troublesome Tiedowns
- Helideck and Helicopter Egress Training Facilities
- Wrong Deck Landings
- FOD and an AS350B3 Accident Landing on a Yacht in Bergen
- Helideck Lightning Strike: Damage Missed
- Offshore Helicopter Emergency Response
- Leadership and Trust and Safety Performance Listening and Learning – AEROSPACE March 2017
- How To Destroy Your Organisation’s Safety Culture
- How To Develop Your Organisation’s Safety Culture
- Consultants & Culture: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- The Power of Safety Leadership: Paul O’Neill, Safety and Alcoa
Look out for future articles that will cover:
- A review of some of the significant structural and cultural safety issues in the Brazilian offshore sector: UPDATE 14 May 2022: Review of “The impact of human factors on pilots’ safety behavior in offshore aviation – Brazil”
- A ‘classic’ North Sea accident from the 1980s that illuminates a number of topical safety challenges UPDATE 5 June 2022: North Sea Helicopter Struck Sea After Loss of Control on Approach During Night Shuttling (S-76A G-BHYB 1983)
- Bird strikes and light twin helicopters UPDATE 28 May 2022 AW169 Birdstrike with a Turkey Vulture
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