About the weather minima...
I don't agree but here is it:
Regulatory authorities
recognise that ditchings and crashes, though rare, do occur from time to time, and for
this reason require operators to provide a comprehensive range of safety equipment,
procedures and training. However, there are occasions when weather conditions in
offshore areas are such that a safe ditching would be impossible, survival time in the
sea would be very much reduced, and rescue would be extremely difficult or
impossible. If the safety provisions are necessary under normal conditions, it is illogical
to permit flights to take place in conditions such that they would be of no avail.
Therefore, it has been argued, flights should be prohibited in conditions that preclude
a safe ditching or would not allow survivors to be rescued.
3 The counter-argument runs as follows. There is an element of risk in all forms of
transport, but it is considered ‘safe’ when the risk is assessed as being at an acceptably
low level; occasional accidents, tragic though they are, do not invalidate this policy
unless they occur at a frequency that discredits the original risk calculations. Fixedwing
public transport flights take place globally over oceanic and mountainous areas
which would not permit a safe ditching or forced landing. Similarly, Group A public
transport helicopters routinely fly without restriction over wooded and hilly terrain, in
cloud, and over countryside covered in dense fog, where a safe autorotational landing
could not be performed. Offshore helicopter operations are not radically different
from other forms of rotary-winged public transport; such extra risks as they do carry
(related to the hostile environment and the repeated exposure of individual
passengers) are already handsomely discounted by the provision of extra safety
equipment and training. Moreover, operations over rough seas are not necessarily
more dangerous than similar flights over land; for example, if the Cormorant Alpha
accident had occurred at an airport, it is most unlikely that anyone would have
survived the impact. It would therefore be perverse to apply any restrictions to
offshore flights that are not applied to other equivalent forms of public transport.
Regards
Aser