PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - AS332L2 Ditching off Shetland: 23rd August 2013
Old 24th Jan 2014, 14:33
  #2354 (permalink)  
HeliComparator
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Aberdeen
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Originally Posted by Pittsextra
... It shouldn't take the publication of AAIB reports years after the event before evidence of the work starts, and they shouldn't be the driver of change.
Unfortunately it is and will always be thus. Its the autopsy approach - where you wait for folk to die before you do anything. But in general you don't know there is a problem until after the accident. To address what you think is the problem in a knee-jerk way, is prone to wasted effort and lack of concentration on the real issues when they finally come out in a properly thought-out report, and every unnecessary change has it's own hazard to contribute.

HFDM goes some way to being pro-active, but even a well-run HFDM programme (which is a bit like a hen's tooth!) can only prevent accidents that have had a preceding "near miss".

So I'm afraid that accidents have always been, and will always be, the driver of change not just in this industry but in every other one.

On the particular subject of the number of pax in the cabin, a reduction would be welcomed by the pax on comfort grounds and who could blame them for that! It could also be justified on evacuation grounds, with caveats.

However, if I were a pax, I would prefer that max effort went into keeping the helicopters airborne, rather than spending too much effort on what happens after an uncontrolled ditching, only a small spectrum of which would entail any benefit by reducing pax numbers.

ie a controlled ditching - everyone gets out OK.
A completely uncontrolled ditching (crash) - chances are everyone dies on impact.
A slightly uncontrolled ditching such as the Shetland one, yes for that case certainly the chances of sucessful evacuation is improved with fewer pax. But it is the only one out of all the recent arrivals in the water, where that is the case.
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