The one particular series of aircraft, in one particular part of the North Sea, operated by multiple Operators within that Sector figure in this series of ditchings and fatal accidents.
I posed the question before about the possible significance of this....and suggested pure serendipity is a very unlikely root cause for the phenomenon.
Some folks are calling for grounding the entire fleets of the affected Aircraft and some challenge the rationale for that action.
I suggest it is the right time for a bottom up review of how the UK Sector does business....leaving nothing out of the review....sparing no Sacred Cows.
On the 225, EC and the Authority seem to have agreed upon the cause and cure for the Shaft problem. Whether that issue has actually been resolved satisfactorily or not will take time to decide.
What we know for sure is the UK Sector is putting aircraft into the water at an increasing rate, killing people in the process, and the Industry and Authority seem unable or unwilling to find a way to prevent these things from happening.
It is time to drop the Shields folks.....and find a better way.
The Gulf of Mexico Operators......well some of them anyway....have made significant changes....out of necessity and the accident trend has reversed and is decreasing. Bristow made a move away from Single Engined aircraft and seems to be moving towards a medium to heavy fleet as compared to prior years. Many of the singles they sold off....were snapped up by other GOM Operators.
The results of a Johns Hopkins Study ranked Mechanical Failure and Weather/Judgement failures as the two most common causes of accidents. Of the 139 people killed in the GOM in helicopter accidents.....44 were Pilots (remembering most of the fatal crashes involved single Pilot, single engine helicopters).
Oil- and Gas-Related Helicopter Crashes in Gulf of Mexico Killed 139 Over 26 Years -- Environmental Protection