OK, so I know I sound like a broken record ..............
I started a thread in Nov 2005 about the statistical risks of flying offshore at night and the high number of accidents that seem to result. We then had Morcombe Bay a year later. Began this thread in 2008 and seemed to get a fair bit of agreement that operations offshore at night pose a high, perhaps even unacceptable risk.
I just wanted to update the table for accidents in UK North Sea aircraft over the last 20 years, while the subject is fresh in everyone's minds.
Daylight
Sikorsky S61 1990 Brent Spar Helideck - Collision and crash - Human Factors
Eurocopter AS332 (Super Puma) 1995 Near Brae Platform - Lightning Strike, Tail Rotor Loss, Ditched - Weather
Sikorsky S76A (Modified) 2002 Leman Field, UK - Main rotor failure and crash - Mechanical
Night
Eurocopter AS332 (Super Puma) 1992 Near Cormorant 'A', UK - Stall and crash - Human Factors
Eurocopter AS332L2 2006 Den helder Aircraft Ditched - Under Investigation
Eurocopter SA365N (Dauphin) 2006 Morecambe Bay, UK - Disorientation & Crash - Human Factors
Eurocopter EC225 2009 Etap Platform, UK - Aircraft Ditched on approach offshore - Human Factors
Together with this list, I would venture an opinion that 2 out of the 3 daylight accidents would have occurred day or night, and the 1995 Lightning Strike incident was achieved without any loss of life by the crew autorotating into the sea - A task that would unlikely be successful at night.
So this list shows that over half of North Sea accidents in the last 20 years have been at night, when night operations (in my log book) account for less than 8% of the flying.
Last edited by Special 25; 28th February 2009 at 06:47.