Offshore safety
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From: Australia
GoM safety
Helicopter Accidents Raises Industry Concern
Houston Chronicle Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Mar. 25 - Helicopter safety in the Gulf of Mexico has been getting worse, and operators can't point to a single reason.
Last year was the deadliest in the past two decades for the roughly two dozen firms that ferry workers to oil platforms and ships. The companies had seven fatal accidents, which claimed the lives of 12 people.
Wednesday's discovery of four bodies, with six people still missing, is putting 2004 on a bad course, said Casey Lowery, flight operations manager for El Paso Energy and vice chairman of the Helicopter Safety Advisory Conference.
The conference is a safety cooperative of the Gulf helicopter companies, clients and manufacturers.
"As an industry, we realize that something's going on out there," Lowery said.
The problem in pinpointing any pattern to the accidents is that when they are analyzed, no single cause leaps out, he said.
His group divided 47 reported Gulf accidents over the last five years into eight categories. The most common type accounted for 19 percent of accidents and least common accounted for 6 percent of accidents.
The leading categories were "engine-related" and "loss of control or improper procedure." Smaller categories were "loose cargo striking tail rotor" and "passenger control."
"Who knows what this one is going to be," Lowery said.
Ferrying offshore workers by helicopter is big business. A fleet of 607 choppers carried 2.6 million passengers last year in 1.3 million flights -- about 3,600 flights a day, according to the advisory conference. The conference compiles its numbers from information submitted voluntarily by operators.
Overall, the offshore operators are just as safe as their "air taxi" counterparts across the country. For the past five years, the Federal Aviation Administration's commuter and on-demand category of aircraft, which includes smaller fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, has had 2.3 accidents per 100,000 flight hours, and 0.56 fatal accidents.
The Gulf carriers, by their own statistics, also have had 2.3 accidents per 100,000 flight hours, plus a slightly higher 0.65 fatal accidents.
The numbers show them to be less safe than commercial airliners, but more safe than private civilian aircraft -- not surprising to anyone in aviation.
With the rising number of accidents recently, the advisory conference has issued four new advisories, or "recommended practices," for operators. They deal with debris on offshore helipads, proper radio frequencies, jet fuel quality and getting passengers to be a "second set of eyes" when a helicopter has a single pilot.
"Hopefully, we're doing the right things," Lowery said.
Era Aviation is one of the top three or four operators of Gulf helicopters, Lowery said. It has had at least five fatal accidents before Wednesday, but only one was in the Gulf. The rest were in Alaska, another major base of operations for the company.
Era Aviation was acquired in 1967 by Rowan Co., an oilfield-services company, said Rowan Vice President William C. Provine in the company's Houston headquarters.
Era owns "about 90 helicopters -- about half in the Gulf and half in Alaska and Nevada," he said.
He estimated that about 70 percent of the company's business is done by the helicopters working the Gulf because it is a year-round operation. The firefighting and tourist operations in Nevada and Alaska generally involve a season of about three months.
The missing Sikorsky S-76A is identified by tail number N579EH, said a spokeswoman with the Coast Guard in New Orleans.
FAA Registry records show that it was manufactured in 1984.
Era Aviation's Web site describes the company's Sikorsky as "a twin-engine, 12-passenger, IFR (instrument flight rated) certified helicopter featuring higher speeds, greater range and a smoother ride. This reliable helicopter is capable of carrying cargo and passengers offshore, day or night and in reduced weather conditions."
It has a cruising airspeed of 140 knots and a maximum range of 400 nautical miles.
Sikorsky spokeswoman Sheena Steiner said that 530 model S-76 helicopters have been manufactured since the aircraft was introduced in 1976. She said the current price varies, depending upon how an aircraft is equipped, "but a basic offshore configuration would sell for about $8.5 million."
According to the NTSB accident database, the S-76 has been involved in at least 10 fatal accidents dating back to 1985. One occurred in Brazoria County in 1987 when a pilot got caught in fog.
A major S-76 accident not included in the NTSB database was eerily similar to Wednesday's crash. The helicopter was ferrying oil workers in the North Sea in 2002 when it went down, killing 11. Investigators ruled the likely cause was an undetected rotor blade design weakness made worse by a previous lightning strike.
By Dan Feldstein and Thom Marshall. Chronicle reporter Cindy Horswell contributed to this story.
Houston Chronicle Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Mar. 25 - Helicopter safety in the Gulf of Mexico has been getting worse, and operators can't point to a single reason.
Last year was the deadliest in the past two decades for the roughly two dozen firms that ferry workers to oil platforms and ships. The companies had seven fatal accidents, which claimed the lives of 12 people.
Wednesday's discovery of four bodies, with six people still missing, is putting 2004 on a bad course, said Casey Lowery, flight operations manager for El Paso Energy and vice chairman of the Helicopter Safety Advisory Conference.
The conference is a safety cooperative of the Gulf helicopter companies, clients and manufacturers.
"As an industry, we realize that something's going on out there," Lowery said.
The problem in pinpointing any pattern to the accidents is that when they are analyzed, no single cause leaps out, he said.
His group divided 47 reported Gulf accidents over the last five years into eight categories. The most common type accounted for 19 percent of accidents and least common accounted for 6 percent of accidents.
The leading categories were "engine-related" and "loss of control or improper procedure." Smaller categories were "loose cargo striking tail rotor" and "passenger control."
"Who knows what this one is going to be," Lowery said.
Ferrying offshore workers by helicopter is big business. A fleet of 607 choppers carried 2.6 million passengers last year in 1.3 million flights -- about 3,600 flights a day, according to the advisory conference. The conference compiles its numbers from information submitted voluntarily by operators.
Overall, the offshore operators are just as safe as their "air taxi" counterparts across the country. For the past five years, the Federal Aviation Administration's commuter and on-demand category of aircraft, which includes smaller fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, has had 2.3 accidents per 100,000 flight hours, and 0.56 fatal accidents.
The Gulf carriers, by their own statistics, also have had 2.3 accidents per 100,000 flight hours, plus a slightly higher 0.65 fatal accidents.
The numbers show them to be less safe than commercial airliners, but more safe than private civilian aircraft -- not surprising to anyone in aviation.
With the rising number of accidents recently, the advisory conference has issued four new advisories, or "recommended practices," for operators. They deal with debris on offshore helipads, proper radio frequencies, jet fuel quality and getting passengers to be a "second set of eyes" when a helicopter has a single pilot.
"Hopefully, we're doing the right things," Lowery said.
Era Aviation is one of the top three or four operators of Gulf helicopters, Lowery said. It has had at least five fatal accidents before Wednesday, but only one was in the Gulf. The rest were in Alaska, another major base of operations for the company.
Era Aviation was acquired in 1967 by Rowan Co., an oilfield-services company, said Rowan Vice President William C. Provine in the company's Houston headquarters.
Era owns "about 90 helicopters -- about half in the Gulf and half in Alaska and Nevada," he said.
He estimated that about 70 percent of the company's business is done by the helicopters working the Gulf because it is a year-round operation. The firefighting and tourist operations in Nevada and Alaska generally involve a season of about three months.
The missing Sikorsky S-76A is identified by tail number N579EH, said a spokeswoman with the Coast Guard in New Orleans.
FAA Registry records show that it was manufactured in 1984.
Era Aviation's Web site describes the company's Sikorsky as "a twin-engine, 12-passenger, IFR (instrument flight rated) certified helicopter featuring higher speeds, greater range and a smoother ride. This reliable helicopter is capable of carrying cargo and passengers offshore, day or night and in reduced weather conditions."
It has a cruising airspeed of 140 knots and a maximum range of 400 nautical miles.
Sikorsky spokeswoman Sheena Steiner said that 530 model S-76 helicopters have been manufactured since the aircraft was introduced in 1976. She said the current price varies, depending upon how an aircraft is equipped, "but a basic offshore configuration would sell for about $8.5 million."
According to the NTSB accident database, the S-76 has been involved in at least 10 fatal accidents dating back to 1985. One occurred in Brazoria County in 1987 when a pilot got caught in fog.
A major S-76 accident not included in the NTSB database was eerily similar to Wednesday's crash. The helicopter was ferrying oil workers in the North Sea in 2002 when it went down, killing 11. Investigators ruled the likely cause was an undetected rotor blade design weakness made worse by a previous lightning strike.
By Dan Feldstein and Thom Marshall. Chronicle reporter Cindy Horswell contributed to this story.
Rather than link this to the thread re the most recent GoM accident, I started a new thread. On a previous occasion, a thread related to a particular accident included considerable discussion on GoM safety in general, and I thought a separate thread was preferable.
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 182
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From: South of the Equator
Your correct Time Out....there are a number of similarities with the UK Bristow accident last year.
It will be interesting to see what the Oil Companies are going to do on a worldwide basis after this accident. Last year they [some companies at least] withdrew the S76 from service, until the cause was known.
Lets hope someone uses some logic now regarding this lose.
Does anyone have any suggestion of the rumours or actuals regarding this accident?
It will be interesting to see what the Oil Companies are going to do on a worldwide basis after this accident. Last year they [some companies at least] withdrew the S76 from service, until the cause was known.
Lets hope someone uses some logic now regarding this lose.
Does anyone have any suggestion of the rumours or actuals regarding this accident?
