EASA Proposes New Helo Ditching Rules
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EASA Proposes New Helo Ditching Rules
I'm well aware the folks that need to know, know, so posting for general interest. From AIN.
New rules proposed by EASA are intended to address what the European agency sees as inadequacies in the existing certification rules (CS-27 and CS-29) governing offshore operations. In an otherwise survivable water impact, EASA said, most fatalities occur as a result of drowning because the occupants are unable either to rapidly escape from a capsized and flooded cabin or to survive in the sea long enough to be rescued.
Furthermore, the testing environment in which helicopters are type certified for ditching “bears little resemblance to the sea conditions experienced in operation,” EASA said. The Notice of Proposed Amendment would revise CS-27 and CS-29 to mitigate design-related risks to new helicopter types. Retroactive rules are to be considered in a second phase of this effort.
The proposed changes establish a new ditching certification methodology by which a target “probability of capsize” following a ditching can be determined. This target probability would be verified in sea conditions following a defined tank-test specification using irregular waves. Additional changes are proposed to maximize the chances that occupants could get out of the helicopter and survive until being rescued. Comments are due by June 23.
https://www.easa.europa.eu/system/fi...%202016-01.pdf
New rules proposed by EASA are intended to address what the European agency sees as inadequacies in the existing certification rules (CS-27 and CS-29) governing offshore operations. In an otherwise survivable water impact, EASA said, most fatalities occur as a result of drowning because the occupants are unable either to rapidly escape from a capsized and flooded cabin or to survive in the sea long enough to be rescued.
Furthermore, the testing environment in which helicopters are type certified for ditching “bears little resemblance to the sea conditions experienced in operation,” EASA said. The Notice of Proposed Amendment would revise CS-27 and CS-29 to mitigate design-related risks to new helicopter types. Retroactive rules are to be considered in a second phase of this effort.
The proposed changes establish a new ditching certification methodology by which a target “probability of capsize” following a ditching can be determined. This target probability would be verified in sea conditions following a defined tank-test specification using irregular waves. Additional changes are proposed to maximize the chances that occupants could get out of the helicopter and survive until being rescued. Comments are due by June 23.
https://www.easa.europa.eu/system/fi...%202016-01.pdf
Much better to spend the money and research into how to stop new types of helicopter ditching in the first place. A life is a life but really, the number of non controlled ditching events where lives are lost are very few.
