North Sea oil copter f lights ‘more risky than a plane’
‘Ten times more dangerous’
NORTH Sea offshore helicopter flights are ten times more dangerous than transatlantic aircraft journeys, an inquiry has heard.
A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) into a crash that claimed four lives heard the helicopters fly in a ‘more hazardous operating environment’ and it would not be realistic to expect the same levels of safety as in jet aircraft.
A Super Puma L2 ditched in the sea off Shetland on its approach to Sumburgh Airport in August 2013.
Sarah Darnley, 45, from Elgin, Moray; Gary McCrossan, 59, from Inverness; Duncan Munro, 46, from Bishop Auckland, County Durham; and George Allison, 57, from Winchester, Hampshire, were killed.
Two crew and 12 passengers survived, although the inquiry has heard a fifth man, Samuel Bull, took his own life in 2017 and that it was ‘directly’ linked to the trauma of the crash.
Captain Richard Newson, flight operations manager for helicopters at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), was asked yesterday about a review of offshore helicopter operations which it produced.
It states the mortality risk for those flying in an offshore helicopter is ten times higher than for people on large fixed-wing commercial aircraft flights.
Sheriff Principal Derek Pyle, who is leading the inquiry, asked: ‘So based on the North Sea, it’s ten times more dangerous to be in a helicopter than it is in a fixed-wing transatlantic aircraft?’
Captain Newson replied: ‘The statement from that perspective is true, but you are comparing two completely different forms of transport to two completely different operating environments.’
He also agreed the risk is ten times higher than a very low figure and said that in the past five years the fatality rate on the North Sea is zero. Captain Newson said improvements had been made, pointing to the halving of the accident rate and zero fatalities figure.
An Air Accidents Investigations Branch report published in 2016 found the pilots failed to properly monitor the flight instruments and their decreasing speed until it was too late to prevent the helicopter plunging into the sea.
Sheriff Pyle, who is hearing evidence remotely due to coronavirus restrictions, raised the possibility the pilot may have thought he was trying to land when he came out of the cloud and was surprised to see the sea rather than land beneath him, before crashing.
A statement of agreed evidence read at the start of the inquiry confirmed that no mechanical fault was discovered with the helicopter.
The Crown has now concluded its evidence and the inquiry has been adjourned until September 25.
Last week, the inquiry heard that under the circumstances, the crew of the helicopter would have failed flying exams. Expert Mark Prior said if the pilot had stabilised the speed at 80 knots, he would not have lost control.
Questioned by Advocate Depute Martin Richardson, QC, what would have happened if this performance by the crew had been replicated in tests, Mr Prior had said: ‘They would certainly have failed.’