SASless
You made a point earlier about twin engined helicopters. Some oil companies use them exclusively in the GOM now. That is surely a sign of being prepared to put money towards safety. External liferafts are increasingly a standard with certain oil companies as is HUMS, HOMP etc.
Brian
Several oil companies have already signed up for the SAR service from Cougar and full credit to bp for bringing that aircraft in to do a job no US operator could do.
Not all offshore customers are equal as many of you know, especially in the production management sector, which is probably the most cost focused anywhere. The last two cold water survival accidents (RLC & Air Log) both featured production management work.
On the issue of the slow response, I wonder if it there is an over-reliance on technology. See this presentation that discusses this problem from an oil company emergency perspective:
http://www.oilandgasuk.co.uk/downloa...xter_Shell.pdf
It certainly time that more lessons from the North Sea and other advanced regions are accepted in the US,