SAS, no I think your point is valid. Is it just the nature of random events, or is there an underlying cause behind the accidents we have had over the last 4 years or so, with very few for a long time before that? I don't see any reduction in safe practices from where I am, quite the opposite in fact, but then for whatever reason we in Bristow haven't been a party to these accidents.
Perhaps its the current obsession with paper safety - both from the operations and the engineering side? Maybe its time to have less reliance on paper, and more reliance on safety derived from individuals carrying out their jobs in a professional manner. In this respect, IMO it is the regulatory authorities that are driving the paper-safety gold rush and showing little interest in the real safety "on the shop floor".
I can't help thinking that in 20 years we will be laughing at how much effort was expended on paperwork for so little result (and how much it distracted resource from the real task of safe operations).