VL
Contrary to what you may have heard or read in the comments section of recent news articles on night flying here in NL, the union has no agenda in maintaining the ban on night flights just so that its members can pick up extra pay for holdover days. That's crazy...insane. And the commentary on the Grand Banks weather being better at night so that night flights can usually take place is not supported by the facts. It does happen at times but is certainly not something you could count on.
As a union member I won't apologize for the fact that we receive fair compensation for overtime; but any insinuation that we want the night flying ban so we can profit from it is simply ridiculous. Recent comments suggesting this came from offshore workers who admit that they don't receive fair compensation for their overtime when they are held over. That being said, their statements seem to imply that they might be quite happy to accept the ban on night flights if they did receive fair compensation, so go figure. The fact is, however, that offshore workers everywhere only want to get home when their rotation is done whether they are unionized or not and I don't know of anyone in their right mind that would prefer to stay an extra day offshore for the extra pay versus going home, on time, after 21 days.
The only thing driving this are the valid safety concerns that contribute to the short odds of surviving a night ditching versus the considerably better odds when ditching during daylight hours. The unique circumstances of the NL offshore environment only add to the challenges involved. The present ban on night flights is only following the oil industry's principle of ALARP, or reducing risk to as low as reasonably practicable and is fully supported by expert testimony and evidence from the recent helicopter safety inquiry, as well as the recommendations of the Inquiry Commissioner. If anything, the present ban on night flying has clearly shown that the industry can still get its business done without any substantial impact.
The presence of a full time, full capability SAR helo in St. John's staffed 24/7 is a no doubt a major improvement but is only one part of the debate for and against night flights. The fact is that that this was a key recommendation from the Hickman Inquiry into the Ocean Ranger disaster and was supposed to be in place when production started up on Hibernia in 1997. As someone who has worked offshore NL since that time I was one of many who felt betrayed when it came to light just after the crash of CGR 491 that Cougar's SAR capabilities up to that point were daylight only. To put it bluntly, we were deceived and in some cases outright lied to...by the oil companies, the helicopter operator, and worst of all by the C-NLOPB who were complicit by their silence and allowing it to go on.
