Whatever the other operators of EC225s may or may not have done prior to and subsequent to the May 2012 ditching, it remains a fact that Bristow always kept to an "iron" discipline of downloading the HUMS after every flight since the first EC225 in Aberdeen, even when rotors running.
Flight operations are not allowed to continue until our engineers have pronounced their satisfaction with the results of the download. Many's the time that I've been told to shut the aircraft down due to amber warnings of various gearbox and engine aspects, until the engineers have completed a more in-depth inspection.
How much of a difference this might have made to preventing the May and October ditchings, I'm not qualified to say. How good the HUMS is in detecting potential oil pump failures, I'm also not qualified to say.
You can now attack me and tell me that Bristow Helicopters is no better than the rest. I'm not going to get drawn into such nonsensical and pointless altercations. I just happen to enjoy the regime of safety which Bristow imposes and if other pilots from other operators are happy too, so much the better.
Last edited by Colibri49; 15th Nov 2012 at 10:14.