Just to make clear, I have little experience with other helicopters than the Schweizer 300C so I am not able to base my comments on matters regarding other types than on what I read about them.
From my point of view I find it worrying that in case of a TR failure in the S92, the only option is to enter autorotation.
Another worrying thing is the cracks observed in the MGB housing mounting feet. From reading about these facts, I am not sure if I would be comfortable flying these machines. One of my friends works at Cougar and he is very satisfied with flying the S92 and he tells me that Cougars' approach to all around safety in their operations is of the highest standards.
The S92 seems to be a safe machine and has accumulated lots of flight hours in harsh environments without many major problems. I am sure that Sikorsky is doing everything to make their helicopters as safe as humanly possible however, the teething problems seem to be of the bigger nature and I am not surprised that passengers are a little worried when strapping in those machines.
I agree with those who say that it is not fair to blame the aircraft if the passengers are not able to squeeze themselves out the aircraft windows because of the passengers size or fitness. HUET training, as is with all other emergency training in offshore operations, is an absolute necessity. I don't know the intervals of that training with the offshore workers but maybe that is something that needs more attention from the operators?
In Iceland, all fishermen have to undergo Maritime Survival Training before being able to take on jobs on fishing vessels. But they only have to do recurrency training every 5 years which I believe is to infrequent. I have done that training and I think it is very important, but I have to say that I would like to be able to do that at least every 2 years to be better prepared if/when things go wrong.
From my point of view as a pilot, I think that the HUET training of offshore workers should be performed at least every 2 years and at best, annually. When things go wrong out at sea, on board ships or other man made stuff that hits the sea, it is every man for himself and from that point of view, good emergency training cannot be replaced by any kind of emergency equipment. If you don't know how to operate the equipment or know how to react or where to go, you are in for trouble. We should never have to depend only on luck in emergency situations.
That being said, I am in no way saying that the emergency training was a deciding factor in survivability in the Cougar crash, nor am I saying that the unfortunate people on board the helicopter were unfit or badly trained.
Lets just make the most out of learning from this terrible tragedy to prevent it from happening to others.
Last edited by Heli-Ice; 8th Nov 2009 at 13:31.