Wrong Deck Landing

[Dr Zeke]

A colleague in the oil industry has mentioned to me the problem of wrong deck landings, which are apparently difficult to eliminate completely.
Various new technology solutions seem to be possible - eg an in-cockpit system advising the pilots that the deck ahead is cleared/not cleared. A "no-brainer" final check while on late approach, which will work even in low viz conditions.
How big a problem are wrong-deck-landings?
Is there a need for a new solution?
Some feedback from you guys who are at the sharp end of dealing with this issue daily, would be appreciated...
Thanks!

[Brian Abraham]

It happens from time to time. Did it once in 27 years and literally hundreds of thousands of landings. Single pilot at the time. When two pilot we had a routine of placing a tick alongside the platform name on the flight plan once a clearance was received. Seemed to work OK, though there was still the very, very occasional slip up. If it is such a problem in the minds of some, how about a flashing red light or some such when the deck is not clear. Still a bulb can fail I guess. Hard to build the perfect mouse trap.

[spinwing]

Mmmmm ....

Wrong deck landings should NOT be a problem ... somewhere a 'wrong' SOP or more likely 'NO' SOP for a/c arrivals is being utilised.

Most (?) operations require that the a/c captain gets a 'permission' to land from the Rig radio room at least :10 prior to arrival ... with a 'green deck' confirmation from the HLO prior to a landing to confirm the deck is clear and the fire guards are in place ...

No landings should be contemplated until those permissions are in place .... :eek:

From my experience ALL offshore landing areas are/should be identified by Hi Vis painted names or identifying numbers so that heli crews and or boat crews get to the right place ... it is sometimes necessary to overfly the destination deck in order to correctly ID the rig/platform ... and that process should be part of the SOP.

If there is a problem with correct platform identification (perhaps because of so many rigs/ decks in the local area) it can be easily solved a variety of ways ... either by confirmation that the heli is approaching the correct place (by radio from the HLO) or perhaps by light signal from the deck. The most accurate way is by the overflight method which uses the very hi-tch Mk1 eyeball for positional confirmation.
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:confused:

[Dr Zeke]

Thanks Gents,
I have heard the problem is more likely to arise when there are many installations in close proximity. The correct deck is cleared, and the landing is authorised, but when the heli lands, there's no-one there.... uh oh, should have been 1 mile over there...at that deck.
Overflying would seem to allow for a bullet-proof ID of the deck, but I guess you dont always overfly ..? More often it would be a straight in approach?

We can produce a unit to assist the pilots, but if there's no REAL problem, there wont be a market. I'm just trying to research that, and appreciate your feedback..
All experience and comment is welcome. :)

[SASless]

Who has not landed on the wrong deck.....and understand we are not talking about Rigs, Large Platforms, or vessels here....but Lily Pads, Well heads, or other identical (less name) decks.

When you are doing Well Checking....hitting fields of Well Heads all with the same name but say a letter difference (Ajax-A, Ajax-B....) it can get awfully easy to do.

If you fetch up on a Semi, Jack-Up, or large production Platform by mistake....perhaps a rethink of technique/procedure/fatigue level might be in order.

[Nigel Osborn]

In Bombay there used to be some 98 or so identical unmanned wellheads, only a few 100 plus yards apart. We often flew to 30 or more in a day & it was very easy in poor weather to land on the wrong one. A bunch of grinning faces behind you in the 212 soon let you know you were on the wrong platform!:ugh:

[spinwing]

Mmmmm ...

As per Nigel ... but my experience is the middle east where the field work we did was in a field with 320+ platforms and on average 5-8 rigs or work barges as well ....

We very quickly sorted an SOP to stop the 'wrong deck landing syndrome'.

ALL of the decks we operated to were marked .... but having said that GPS helps immeasurably !!!

I had a personal routine that had me overfly the platform ...ID it ... and then fly a modified 80/260 course reversal procedure which depending on the local wind, would set me up on finals at the correct height and with a decreasing Airspeed ready for the 'mark 1 eyeball ... constant angle decreasing airspeed approach' .... it used to work like a dream for me ... and we used to regularly do 55-60+ approaches and landings per work day!

The only time it wanted to go wrong was if the Wx was a bit 'iffy' and we tried to cheat by not overflying ... 'straight in' approaches 'will bite you in the ass' eventually :=

Cheers :}

[Camp Freddie]

The problem is also that some rigs have 3 names, for example on the SNS the Viking 'P' is also known as 'Loggs" and "North Valiant" so when you see the name on the deck it is not always what you are expecting, and if you are unfamiliar with the area.........

I landed on one today that was the {rigname}-B, but on the deck it said {rigname}-DL, and it was only because my co pilot was familiar and he knew it was the same place.

How about the Audrey-W known as WD and the and the Audrey-X known as the XW. These names are set to trip you up.

In Aberdeen 10 years ago they had the 'Borgny Dolphin' and the 'Borgsten Dolphin" on similar radials at similar distances, also waiting to catch you out.

I think the crews are very professional that despite these traps, very few wrong deck landings occur.

[John Eacott]

In Bombay there used to be some 98 or so identical unmanned wellheads, only a few 100 plus yards apart. We often flew to 30 or more in a day & it was very easy in poor weather to land on the wrong one. A bunch of grinning faces behind you in the 212 soon let you know you were on the wrong platform!:ugh:

It must have been you, Nigel. We never did such a thing ;)

Were there really that many? It was enough to avoid the Indian Navy Mil 8s getting in the way, let alone which platform was which!

[gulliBell]

If you fetch up on a Semi, Jack-Up, or large production Platform by mistake....perhaps a rethink of technique/procedure/fatigue level might be in order.

And if you do inadvertently end up on the wrong manned platform and they ask you who you are, be sure to say "If you don't know I'm not saying" and take-off before they can get an ID on you :}. As one of Brian Abrahams former colleagues once famously did...

[griffothefog]

Back in the day at ADA, a certain gentleman went about 200 metres further than he should have, shut down and went downstairs for breakfast.

He became suspicious when he saw a grand picture of the ayatollah on the mess wall... :=:E

[Special 25]

Identifying the name of the platform is all well and good. Doesn't solve the problem where you just get the mindset you're going to a different platform and happily fly there. Byford, Bideford, Borgholm Dolphin. Forties A, B, C etc. Sedco 711, 712, 714. I nearly landed on the wrong Sedco platform once and even managed to get deck clearance from the correct one that happened to be 7 or 8 miles away and didn't catch the subtle difference in callsign.

[Wizzard]

Of course we all know that it is one sin to land on the wrong deck but a much greater sin to take off again without proper fire cover etc.

B*ggering off quietly is NOT the profesional thing to do...

[SASless]

Buggering off after buggering up.....kinda like being pregnant virgin is it not?

[HeliComparator]

I think the answer to the OP's question is "not really much of a problem at all", however if you do it, even though in reality its almost certainly no big deal, the oil companies will go ballistic!

Therefore we do have various SOPs to prevent it, but it still happens just occasionally when its least expected, and as always its a combination of rare and unfortunate circumstances that leads the crew down the wrong path.

My only personal experience was back in the days of the S61 (1981 I think) where we were going to a semisub under tow. Popped out of cloud in the aprox location where the semisub should be by now, there it was, landed on it but oops, there was another one a couple of miles away also under tow, which was the correct one. How unfair was that! Fortunately in those days less of a fuss was made!

It would of course help if the rig's name could be read without having to nearly crash into the structure to see it - hidden behind all those pipes and hoses and covered in bird poo and rust.

[SASless]

Ah yes.....the moving target pre GPS days.

Operating out of Teeside to the Ekofisk....emerged from the Murk having done a Radar Approach to the Etta Platform......to pull up beside the biggest Crane Ship I have ever seen.....it doing 3-4 knots. Fortunately we did not land....we just did another Radar Approach to the "largest" return on the radar!

[Impress to inflate]

I came up with a system where by the helideck edge lighting would be RED and once the HLO had done his inspection and deemed the deck "clear", he would change the deck edge colour to GREEN. This is possible with LED lights and I believe would be easy to set up. I banded the idea around with deck inspectors to no avail. I thought it easy, GREEN light land, RED light don't land !

ITI

[212man]

I remember a certain senior Line Training Captain, in Aberdeen in the early '90s, who - on hearing of a wrong deck landing the day before - exclaimed very loudly that if he ever did that " he'd be so ashamed he'd feel obliged to resign." A few weeks later, doing a weekend oil company customers and BHL managers golf trip, he managed to land at the wrong golf course! :E

Back to offshore though, another reason it can happen is the crew become fixated on the wrong destination and go there intentionally - only to find when they get there it's not where they are supposed to be. Difficult with manned installations - but I know of it happening - but easier with NUIs.

[espresso drinker]

A helicopter crash last month in the Gulf of Mexico in which the pilot died may have happened because officials did not properly signal that a landing pad was closed, according to a preliminary federal report.

The pilot, Arturo Lebron, of Lafayette hit the framework over an oil well, which was encroaching over the landing pad on the rig, about 35 miles off the coast of Grand Isle, the National Transportation Safety Board said. Witnesses who saw Lebron landing tried to wave him off, but he crashed and drowned after he seemed to be trying to back off.
Lebron was the only person in the aircraft, officials have said.
Officials are required to mark a helicopter landing pad with a red “X” if it is obstructed. The company that owns the oil rig, Bermuda-based Energy XXI, should have done this before the March 28 crash, said Charles Bourque, aviation attorney and former helicopter pilot.
“This accident wouldn’t have occurred if Energy XXI had painted a red ‘X’ on the helipad,” which could be the basis for legal liability, Bourque said.
The landing pad has since been marked with an “X,” the report says.

Report: Lack of protocol may have caused copter crash | DailyComet.com (http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20120607/ARTICLES/120609715)

[Brian Abraham]

Of course we all know that it is one sin to land on the wrong deck but a much greater sin to take off again without proper fire cover etc.The only time we ever used to see fire cover provided was on semi submersibles, jack ups, and survey vessels. Never on manned fixed platforms. Things different elsewhere?

[Saint Jack]

Impress to inflate: Your Post #17, i.e. "....RED light don't land..." Already done, see CAP437, Chap. 4 Para. 3.6

[Hummingfrog]

Saint Jack

i.e. "....RED light don't land..." Already done, see CAP437, Chap. 4 Para. 3.6


From CAP 437

A visual warning system should be installed if a condition can exist on an installation which may be hazardous for the helicopter or its occupants. The system (Status Lights) should be a flashing red light (or lights), visible to the pilot from any direction of approach and on any landing heading.

You are mixing up 2 different circumstances. The Red flashing status lights indicate an unsafe condition on the rig ie gas release. They are usually triggered automatically when such an unsafe condition exists. They are NOT used to indicate that the deck is unavailable due to the lack of HLO/firecover.

The helideck edge lights are now green in the NS so as Impress to inflate proposes a simple switch to red would indicate the deck is closed. Easy to see in the dark and usable in bright daylight.

HF

[peterperfect]

One area that can be improved to prevent WDLs is oil companies making sure HLOs are empowered and encouraged to intervene on the radio. There have been many cases where landing clearance was passed, and acknowledged, without either the HLO having the aircraft in sight at all, or the HLO sighting the inbound aircraft and happily watching it track elsewhere to land on a rig or installation nearby. This assumes he also has his own radio.....
In some cultures (fortunately not all) its an important factor, where there might be significant ramifications if the pilot's authority was ever questioned, so only the minimum is transmitted. This is also more likely where there is poor CRM in the cockpit too, with a dominant 'leader' and a timid (un-empowered) co-pilot ?

This is a very beneficial and proactive safety-related thread chums !
pp.