©The Lafayette Daily Advertiser, Louisiana
July 20, 2004
Helicopter crash 38th since 2000
Experts: Traffic, not safety faults, accounts for large number of accidents.
LAFAYETTE
— A helicopter crash Saturday in the Gulf of Mexico was the fifth this year for the aircraft that shuttle offshore workers to and from oil drilling platforms.
That brings the total number crashes of helicopters in the Gulf since 2000 to 38. The crashes before Saturday killed 28 people, according to figures from the National Transportation Safety Board. The pilot in Saturday’s crash, which happened south of Cameron Parish, is still missing.
Pilots and safety experts said the numbers tell more about the volume of helicopter traffic in the Gulf than about safety problems.
“We have more helicopters in that particular area than anywhere else in the world,” said NTSB Regional Director Hector Casanova.
Helicopters transport more than 7,000 passengers per day on more than 3,600 flights to and from drilling platforms in the Gulf, said Gary Tucker, an Air Logistics pilot who heads the executive committee for the Helicopter Safety Advisory Conference. The group that includes representatives from the oil and helicopter industries.
Those numbers represent about 25 percent of the total helicopter traffic in the United States, according Helicopter Association International, a Virginia-based helicopter industry interest group.
Tucker said the five-year average accident rate for helicopter pilots in the Gulf is 2.3 accidents per 100,000 hours of flying, compared with a national rate of nine accidents per 100,000 flight hours.
The NTSB finds no particular pattern in the helicopter accidents in the Gulf, Casanova said. The causes are the same for helicopter accidents everywhere — pilot errors, maintenance problem and equipment failures.
But, he said, water bodies do present their own peculiar dangers.
The weather is generally an unknown as pilots head offshore, Casanova said, and if something goes wrong, there is often nowhere to land but in the water.
“It’s a very unforgiving territory,” he said.
Some interesting stats there:
7,000+ passengers on 3,600+ flights per day which is 25% of the total helicopter traffic in the US, but the number of accidents per 100,000 hours compares very favourably - 2.3 compared with 9 nationally.
However, we don't have the stats for
fatal accidents. Does anyone know them? The number of fatal accidents is more relevant than the number of fatalities because there are likely to be more passengers on flights in the Gulf than nationally.
The chances of having an accident in the GoM are much lower than elsewhere but, if it does occur, the chance of it being fatal is much higher because of the unforgiving terrain.
The NTSB says the causes are the same as elsewhere - pilot error, maintenance problems and equipment failures.
Are the minimum hours and/or flying background requirements sufficient given the type of work and weather conditions?
Would prohibiting single engine ops offshore make a big difference, some or no difference?
Or requiring two pilots for all flights offshore?
Or restricting offshore flights to instrument rated pilots in full IFR equipped helicopters?
Should the FAA go all the way and require that all offshore flights are conducted by two IR pilots in twin-engine IFR-equipped helicopters?
I'm not expressing any opinions - I don't have either the qualifications or experience to do so - but I'd be interested to read the opinions of the professionals on the forum.
Tudor Owen