Post 1664 by Brian Abraham holds so much truth and could be applied to a great many of our Offshore Operations in Third World Countries. Nigeria begins to ring a Bell unless there have been some extraordinary changes in the past couple of years.
Perhaps there have been some improvements in the Aircraft but the Weather has not changed and the ATC situation and weather reporting has not improved.
At least one of the maligned Operators will shut down operations due to lack of visiblilty in the Dusty Season from what I have heard.
But for decades....Bristow did exactly as Gullibell describes re VMC/IMC operations without reliable weather reporting, no alternate planning, and no Ground Based naviads or Radar Approach or Enroute services. Just climb into the world's oldest Bell 212's and off into the Rain, Fog, Clouds you went. Most of us Coffee Drinkers found a Seismic Line in the Mangroves and beat feet. The Tea Drinkers flogged out in the clag and hoped to find the rig using Radar. Finding the land based rigs on Radar was a bit harder and involved far more luck. MDA's were based upon how you felt that day. After the Nigerian CAA mandated GPS, we at least had a reliable way to fix a location once we had been there which made it far more likely we would find the landing site.
Despite that.....not a single confirmed case of CFIT. We lost several to mechanical/engineering failures, one to cutting down a set of wires, and one suicide, and of course the one Ditching. There remains the one 412 that disappeared on a Night Medical Flight.
One absolute....if you never lose sight of the ground...you never have to find it again which would eliminate a vast number of the Offshore CFIT events we do have.
Gulli has raised some issues that provoked some heated discussion.
He is not as far off the mark as some of you think....or wish that he was.