Albatross, Nick, all of the above,
Hey, I didn't write the rules.... Although I should probably admit to not making a big deal about them either.
When we did the orientation day on the rig in question it was pretty clear that the rig boss did not want us landing on his deck with an uncontrolled fire...period. The platform was a transfer rig used for moving light crude and gas to carriers, at the time it made absolute sense not to land, I mean, it was only myself, the co-plt a few perishables or a sling load. Our operations were in the early stages of development and SOP's were pretty flexible by todays standards. Funnily enough, it made more sense to go down in flames and blame it on mechanical failure than to take out a rig full of people and be blamed for making a bad call.
It would be nice to say I stood my ground and said "my pax deserve that deck" but really all I cared about was getting the job done, pleasing the rig boss, my boss and keeping the contract.....and be damned if a 1% chance of getting a fire after LDP was going to stop me...
Now for the disclamer.... I am not sure if my will power is that strong to put a machine in the drink if I think I could land it safely on a deck... nor do I think I would of had enough time to contemplate it as our LDP was basically over the pad. If I was honestly faced with the scenario mentioned above, I really don't know what decision I would have made at the time.... probably land, self preservation has a strange way of making decisions for you.
Last thing I should mention is that the company was Chevron, not Textron... bit of finger trouble on that one, and an infamous big man Ricky was in charge of rule making at the time.......Some people may remember him
