Bristow Wrong Deck Landing

[industry insider]

https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandga...-sea-platform/

There is usually a systemic cause for this. 40s platforms look very alike (or did in the 80s)

Don’t scapegoat the crew, Bristow.

[malabo]

Why the AAIB, somebody die? Wrong deck landings are the fodder that has kept legions of SMS “experts” at both oil companies and operators gainfully employed. So far, all recommendations have either had a serious economic impact not supported by any less hazard, or introduced other more significant risks.

[Nigel Osborn]

In the 70s we lived on the Forties Field using a Bolkow for mainly inter platform changing. The rigs are similar & at night or in poor weather it was hard to see the platform. The Doppler often would drop off line on those short legs & so the procedure was to call on final & get a positive landing clearance. The system worked well as I must have done well over 10000 landings without a problem, sometimes 120 a day or night but I can see how easy it could be to land on the wrong platform. I feel sorry for that crew as I'm sure that dung will come their way!

[the coyote]

No one is immune from human error. Those that have, and those that will if they do it for long enough.

[John Eacott]

Quotes are from the Unions: does that tell you anything?

Jake Molloy, regional organiser of the RMT Union said: “This is astonishing.

“I was of the understanding that systems and procedures were put in place some time ago to ensure this kind of event couldn’t happen, again.

“It seems we introduce systems to address failures that have the potential for a major incident, then after a period of time those systems are forgotten.

“You have to question how learnings from previous events of this nature are lost.”

John Boland, regional officer at the Unite union said: “It’s very concerning. These pilots are very experienced and you would expect that they are landing on the correct platform.

“The concern is if the platform wasn’t actually ready for the helicopter landing, and there were operations going on, that could have been a much more serious situation.”

Could have, may have

Nigel may remember that allied to the Decca dropouts many NS facilities had the same NDB frequency back in the 70s; that was fun



But I feel for the crew on this occasion, they are could well become scapegoats for something deeper than a misident. Dusseldorf/Aberdeen anyone?

[Fareastdriver]

Maybe they fed the platforms in to the FMS in the wrong order.

'That must be the right platform, the autopilot has lined us up on it'.

On my very first line training trip way back in 1978 on the Ekofisk my highly experienced training captain demonstrated how to land on the wrong deck.

[76fan]

Ah those were the days ...... my first Bristow sortie as a three ring (i.e. not IFR rated) PiC in a S61N early February 1977 ..... early first Aberdeen-Forties flight of the day, dark, weather marginal and still probably shirtsleeve pre-goonsuit era. Completed the multi-platform shuttle using a print out of the four Forties platforms which thankfully had the bearing and distance of each from the other(s). 200ft transit back and crept back visually via the Don and Aberdeen flats nearly three hours later. Second Forties shuttle flight in the afternoon in better weather lasting nearly three and a half hours. One of those days that sticks in the memory.

Looking at Flight Tracker it appears to be a Monday to Friday job now, with wonderful anti-icing and great pay ..... how things have changed!

[dustycraphopper]

Hit the nail on the head Malabo

These things happen , nobody got hurt did they , learn from it - review the procedures ( but only if need be ) and move on .

You can bet some will make a meal out of it and go the full 5 courses and not just a quick snack

[tu154]

Wrong deck landings still happen at a decent rate, I’d guess at least one per year. Some make the headlines, many don’t. The AAIB get involved as it’s normally classed as a serious incident in their terms, at least initially until investigated.

Normally a good test of an operator’s just culture. Many reasons for it to happen, many human factors related, but often organisational too. Some days it all lines up and nothing in the world can break in to convince you that it’s not the right deck. Feel for the crew. An unhappy place to be.

[SASless]

Even a Monkey falls out of a tree every now and then!

If the Decks are well marked with the name of the rig/platform.....I can see an approach to the wrong landing spot....but not a landing.

Does the Company SOP require a positive acknowledgement between the Crew confirming the name of the intended landing spot.....by name before touchdown?

One thing for sure.....without a single word being said to the crew by anyone.....these two Pilots shall never land at the wrong Platform again....ever!

The real question is.....which one of their detractors will be the next one to get their names in the newspapers for doing the exact same thing?

[Prawn2king4]

I've landed on the wrong deck during a local shuttle in bad weather. Embarrassing - and it cost me a few beers in the pub that evening. I've also landed at Edinburgh a few times, but I think that was the correct airport.

[PANews]

Something in the water that day..... it was apparently the same day as BA flew an airliner full of people heading for Germany to Edinburgh.....

[DOUBLE BOGEY]

I nearly did it. In my case a change of sequence in planning stage and a failure for my brain to comply. Programmed the NAV. Flew to what in my mind was the correct deck. Made a call for deck landing and the "correct" deck answered. Frantic check of paperwork and OOOPS nearly did it.
We should read the label on the deck but sometimes something takes our concentration away form that requirement onto something more pressing and if all the stars have aligned, it happens.
For many years the most pragmatic solution has been the RED Lights ON indicating deck unavailable and GREEN Lights ON for available. That may solve the problem.....but who's going to pay for it???

Hope the crew are OK and yes, if they don't suffer "Sharia" Law, the Commander wont make that mistake again.

[212man]

I understand how easy it is for this to happen and make no comments about the crew. However, the idea that landing on a platform that may have active crane operations underway, may be in radio silence, may have lose objects on or close to the deck (and down wash) and has no fire or rescue cover, to be a perfectly ok non-event that ‘just happens and what’s the problem?’ is concerning. Particularly as many who espouse this sentiment appear to be current offshore pilots!

[SASless]

20 SEP 2014.....212Man posted here in Rotorheads in a thread about two pilots being suspended for landing on the wrong deck.....saying:

"I can also recall, as I suspect FED can, a tall ex RMP senior line training captain, on hearing of a wrong deck landing, saying loudly in the flight planning room that he would resign if he ever he did the same. Cue a few weekends later and a management trip to play golf. Wrong golf course -
does that count?".

"FED" was referring to FarEastDriver as I recall.


We have had this conversation before here at Rotorheads.....as this is not the only time or only Crew that has fetched up on the wrong landing site.

The good news for them is it shall happen again by other experienced and trained crews.

The key is to figure out what happened and see if there is a way to fill in that particular cheese hole.

[Nescafe]

There’s those that have, and there’s those that will.

[Apate]

Originally Posted by Nescafe

There’s those that have, and there’s those that will.

And there's those that have retired, but still produce more responses on PPRuNe than those still flying

[SASless]

That is very true.....but from all the experience gained over a long career flying helicopters.....there is an information base that allows for a reasoned response.

We all learn from others....even the most junior bird man (or bird person) can offer up some wisdom now and then....even if it is in the form of generating a thought in others along the lines of..... "I darn sure do not care to add that to my bag of tricks!".

[XA290]

I'm not sure about the wrong golf course story but I recall in the early 90s, there had been a spate of wrong deck landings. The very senior (probably the same one as the golf course story) actually put a memo on the ops room notice board stating that the next person to land on the wrong rig would seriously have their career prospects interfered with.

The following week, he landed on the wrong rig. However, to his credit, he did replace the original memo with a somewhat contrite version and acknowledged that it could happen to anyone.

I seem to recall he was a keen golfer so there may be some truth in the story above.

[Saint Jack]

Yup, it does happen. I remember back in the mid/late 1970's in the Persian Gulf when a helicopter almost landed on the wrong platform, the pilot realised it was the wrong platform when he came very close to landing on top of a 212, piloted by the late John Harrison, who was already sitting there turning and burning.