Hi folks,
I've been a long-time lurker, but thought I'd join upon hearing the sad news of yet another NS chopper downing. I am not a pilot and nor do I work in aviation (I'm a legal advisor in Oil & Gas), so I can only look up to you all - especially the chopper drivers - as my heros. Alas, the furthest I got was my gliding wings in the RAF cadets. I have always had a fascination with aviation though.
I am sickened to the stomach that in 2016 and 50 years since we started extracting oil in the NS, that we should still be having these all too frequent tragic losses of life.
It is regretful that CHC have now filed for C11 because frankly it seems like a lottery between the three players - CHC, Bond and Bristow - as to whom will next suffer a loss.
I understand that there is an element of risk with any aircraft; after-all, there are so many things that could theoretically go bang. But my question is this: would the operators allow this frequency of failure or this level of calculated risk on a well-head or a production facility?
Perhaps I am over-simplifying the issue, but it seems to me as a by-standing lay person, that there is an unacceptable frequency to any chopper incident in this industry, which I cannot help but feel that if such incidents were to directly impact production/revenue, they genuinely wouldn't happen ever again.
It's been a while since I have let any aviation contracts, but last time I checked, the value of a human being was about USD$10m and in general, the chopper carriers are insured against loss of life to around USD$50-100m. Hence, a chopper downing needn't necessarily bring down the carrier (CHC notwithstanding) and the client can go about its business as usual after the de-rigueur HSE hand-wringing and knee-jerk media sorrow.
On the other hand, the ramifications from an oil spill... Well, you've seen what happens there. The current bill for Macondo is roughly USD$25bn, with the cost for the loss of 11 souls being but a drop in the ocean (so to speak). And only a giant like BP could sustain this sort of exposure.
Accordingly, I refuse to accept that the downing of a chopper cannot be prevented. And while accidents do happen, I regret that it appears they happen more when the ramifications are cost-manageable; human life seemingly just a costed portion of the risk to the business.
RIP.