Another question from an oil worker
I am another offshore worker with aviation connections in my job offshore who has taken great comfort from the reassurance offered from pilots on this thread, i deal with pilots on a daily basis out there and have a huge respect for them, i am equally devastated by the the loss of so many of my fellow o/s workers and the chopper crew recently.
The question i have however is this, when is the line drawn or the decision made that a flight should not be made,is there different paramaters or mindset from pilot to pilot, is a gut feel enough (for want of a better phrase) or must there be conformation of a problem from instrumentation or visual impairment of the chopper. I ask because i along with 15 other passengers had a very frightning and never explained expierience on an inbound L1 flight from a field NE of Shetland. In October 2006 G-TIGG landed on our deck, it then proceeded to offload all passengers as oil was being lost from the engine area and was coating the side of the airframe. Several hours later a Bristows engineer was delivered to us from a neighbouring platform he had been called to, a repair was effected (replaced O ring) oil topped up and we were loaded onboard. The route was that we had 2 stops at sister platforms then off to Scatsta, however after the last lift en route home during our ascent a horrible, memorable and frightning bang was heard from the engine compartment, main rotor area, this was followed by a quite horriffic vibration throughout the chopper which caused a pan pan to be sent an immediate controlled loss of altitude and a memorable Bristows engineer (sharing comms with the pilot) that we were giving a lift home to franticlay tightning his seat belt.
We were only a short distance out so returned to the platform of departure landed and were happily decanted to stand in the heli-wells. The engineer then opened up engine cowlings, gave the stabiliser a shake etc etc. nothing was found a quick air test was performed, we were then to our disbelief loaded on again and flown into Shetland, again on inbound flight this vibration could be felt. This incident is spoken about to this day yet and to a certain degree made for some of us the arrival of the new 92s the most welcome sight ever........... i apologise for the long winded speil but give the facts and ask how after such a defined event as this with no evidence to the cause at the time and on the tail end of a burst engine o ring initially was it deemed safe to fly us in this aircraft, we trust the pilots and their professionalisim to the absoloute end but still things like this raise an eyebrow.
I have probalbly opened myself up for endless abuse but the question and facts are genuine and as a very concerned oil worker who has sat on a chopper with what seemed a serious problem would appreciate any comments from the professional pilots/engineers out there. Even better does anybody know of this incident as i would expect that it must have been reported and tell me exactly what the cause of this was, i do know that GG featured quite regularly in the AAIB monthly reports so it may be listed there.