CAA to present N. Sea helicopter flight safety update tomorrow

The UK Civil Aviation Authority will tomorrow (Thursday, October 2) detail ongoing steps to further improve the safety of N. Sea oil industry helicopter flights.

Mark Swan, Director of Safety and Airspace Regulation, at the CAA will give a presentation in Aberdeen on aviation safety in the North Sea – seven months after the CAA published its ‘CAP1145’ report containing a number of safety actions and recommendations for helicopter operations.

He said: “The safety of those who use offshore helicopter flights is our absolutely priority.

“When we published our review of the area in February a lot of the attention was understandably focused on changes around survivability, but actually the vast majority of the actions and recommendations in our report are aimed at the prevention of accidents through improved helicopter design, operations, and aspects of training and maintenance.”

Following his presentation, Swan will participate in a question and answer session together with the following panellists:

• Mark Abbey, Regional Director Western North Sea, CHC Helicopter;
• Luke Farajallah, Managing Director, Bond Offshore Helicopters, and
• Tim Glasspool, Head of Flight Operations (Europe), Bristow Helicopters

Robert Paterson, health, safety and employment issues director at Oil & Gas UK, commented: “Understandably there has been a significantly increased focus on post-incident safety and survivability.

“There is, however, a considerable amount of work being undertaken to ensure helicopter travel is even safer.  Improvements in safety are being identified, assessed and delivered in a collaborative effort involving helicopter operators, aircraft manufacturers, regulators, oil and gas companies, and groups that represent passengers.  

“Hopefully this briefing will go some way to help further restore confidence in the safety of helicopter operations.”