I am surprised that BP are willing to have inexperienced (SAR) captains on this contract. I would think that night hovering over the sea in poor weather is not something that you pick up with only a few hours training. I think that they may struggle to get suitable captains if they only pay "normal" line rates. Who wants to spend 6 months of the year stuck on a N Sea platform with nothing much to do.
Things can go horribly wrong very quickly when doing SAR and one accident would be devastating to the good idea of replacing safety boats with helicopters
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