212man,
Thanks for this: I had some of the integrated reports already, but it's great to get the whole thing.
A quick look through shows that while some research has been done on the subject, it was quite some time ago. And the CAA paper is 7 years old. Which means most of the current types flying over the North Sea would have been certified long before the paper came out (the AW139 may be the exception). Also, it appears that very few of the recommendations have been acted on.
The Met Office now has a very comprehensive data set on waves around the UK, far better than was used in all the previous studies. And all those studies of wave dynamics agree that wave steepness is the crucial factor.
It is also very interesting to see the different definitions of 'ditching floats' and 'emergency floats'.
I found the following quote from Appendix A page 23 very 'illuminating'!
These ditching incidents are summarised in Annex D, and it can be seen that about half the total ditching incidents involved the S61 type. If one ignores the capsize of a Chinook which was leaking through the stern ramp, all the capsizes were S61’s. However, none of the other types ditched experienced weather worse than seastate 2!
Admittedly, this is old data, but the old S61 was one of the types you would expect to behave very well when in the water.
Anyway, thanks again for the link. I hope many of the readers of this thread will have a look at the report.
bondu
