Pilots and Mechanics can always find a way to put a Chopper into the drink. Nothing really changes over the years as the same old causes for crashes keep happening over and over. Pilots aren't very innovative in that they cling to the same old proven ways of tearing up helicopters.
Here in the GOM we don't change the way we do things much even though we are going much further out. The FAA doesn't care. The Oil Company doesn't care.
We did make a lot of changes a while back that has cut down our accident rate.
It sounds like you guys on the North Sea are where we were several years ago.
Our accident rate had gotten bad and our safety standards had slipped.
We changed then and maybe you need to change now.
The it will be our turn again but I bet we have to lose a few Choppers first.