Originally Posted by
Mitchaa
You make a very valid point HC
However, fact of the matter is, there has been 6 accidents/incidents with Airbus helicopters in the North Sea in 7yrs.
We can quote hundreds of thousands of hours spanning decades but one accident/incident on average every 14 months is a scary scary statistic for the public to accept.
3 cases were manufacturer defects, 2 were human error, the 6th, well hopefully we find out more this afternoon.
So in terms of the 2 pilot error ones, I suggest they should be discounted in terms of blaming the airframe. The two ditchings due to bevel gear shaft - possibly avoidable with more rigorous use of HUMS abut anyway problem identified and sorted. REDL with its planet gear, there is perhaps some debate as to whether it was avoidable with more rigorous maintenance procedures (trivial things like communications with the manufacturer in writing, not over the phone). This is the only one that leaves me a bit uncomfortable. But then again if you look at the number of hours flown by the SP fleet etc...
And now something which is looking like a maintenance error (although we don't know for sure yet).
All that set against the fact that the SP family was by far the predominant type flying the N Sea and so not surprisingly had the most accidents.
I am certainly not trying to suggest that the recent accident rate is acceptable nor that we shouldn't be striving hard to dramatically improve it. What I am saying is that to dump a well tried and tested aircraft which has had its issues dealt with, for new stuff with as yet completely unknown issues, is madness. One thing is for sure, there WILL be an accident with a 189/169/175, and probably more accidents than if the 225 remained in service doing the bulk of the work.