NHV 155 Norwich Drama
 

Very surprised at blanket of silence that has managed to be pulled over this one.....added to fact that we would probably never hear of the important lessons to be learnt as "OO" -registered aircraft incident report will probably never see the light of day here in UK.
Aircraft takes off from Airport into known icing conditions (as confirmed by landing traffic and met).
Requests descent inside zone after picking up icing.
Atc unable to comply as aircraft below msa etc etc.
Descends imc with own terrain clearance.
Goes offshore (where cloud base higher) - next we hear is that it has diverted into North Denes.
Subsequently an engine flames out and it recovers back into Norwich single engine.
No fault found with engine - as I expect the cause had probably melted !
My assumption as we will not get to read the report............
All I know is that it was not the usual pilot and I was too chicken to go flying that day!

I have been off work for awhile, so, If this is true, were the other operators flying, or had they decided to be safe than sorry?
This could have been fatal had Both engines flamed out due to icing...which has happened before elsewhere. It is not surprising as there were MANY days Bristows stayed on the ground and the yellow machine took off!, But, they are cheaper so that's all that matters to the oil companies...I suspect up at Humberside come the 1st the red machines will be flying on days when others aren't.......... but they are cheaper too....
When will oil and gas learn you get what you pay for....:ugh:

Really? Why? :rolleyes:

Bah, blinking "Bottom feeders"..............
Sat in cab of the other "low-life" at NWI - shutdown after requesting pirep from landing jet and hearing ice was lurking at low levels. That said, climbing to usual transit levels was never an option!

Red Machines at Humberside have I missed something

Yes you have.

Now pay attention and do keep up!!!!!!!


Bond to fly for Perenco in the new year from Humberside (Agusta 139).
Perenco rumoured to be moving all of its southern ops to Humberside.

OH...but they have Mate! They surely have!

However....mull this over for a mo'.....it is the PIC who pushes the Start Button!

So who is at fault?

That's the easy answer. Blame it on the PIC.

Could it be, that the PICs in NHV are more likely taking chances, is caused by no pilot union, no collective agreement, nothing to protect the PIC if the management get their eyes on..... him - the troublemaker who always says no, as soon there is a cloud in the sky, or the vis is a little lower than it should be, and all the other PICs never say no but go.

This is seen everywhere in the industry. Worst Ryanair in Europe

Sorry It's still PIC fault. No matter what the employment terms are.

Wasn't the first Bristow Strike about Safety Issues....the one in the 70's?

SAS depends if you mean 'ostensibly about' or 'actually about' as you are aware!

Happy New Year!

Perhaps it's not "pilots taking more chances" but different interpretations of flight in iceing conditions. On a number of occasions in Den Helder both Bristow and CHC were on the ground and Dancopter flew. On asking why, they said flight in iceing conditions is when you pick up ice, whereas the other operators paid respect to the report that icing conditions existed on their route. This was especially relevant at night.
One day perhaps we will all sing from the same song sheet.

Reads like a terribly wrong interpretation if they had to decend IMC because of icing, and then lose an engine as well.
I know that there will always be a grey area, but this crew seems to have gone out in pretty grim weather that had been reported.

Are there no SAFA inspections in the UK? And furthermore, after all the noise from passengers/unions oop north after the ditchings, what do they say about this seemingly potential loss of an aircraft in avoidable weather?

Apart from someone reporting it here on Pprune, will it show up anywhere else?

Blame the pilot?
 

Assuming this story is true..., it's a rumour network after all ;)

For me it is too easy to blame the PIC.
To go airborne is such adverse weather in a helicopter without icing clearance could be seen as shear suïcide.

One would like to think that even offshore pilots are reasonably sane :} and will not deliberately make such a foolish decision. Besides what did his co-pilot say? Or the Ops officer?

Nah, this sounds more like manage by fear style management. Staff is trying to get the job done, whatever it takes..... As they feel to have no back-up from management to make safe and professional aviation decisions.

Sad, because at the end of the day you are only transporting people to work...:rolleyes:

SASless,
No the Bristow strike in the 1970s was ostensibly over a supposedly unfair posting to Nigeria but actually to try and force the company to accept a union the same as British Airways Helicopters had.

and Malaysia :ok:

Back on thread....
This will certainly have required an MOR, if as described, which should trigger some sort of investigation in the public domain.

Exactly! :ok:

Any idea who the client was? Are they involved?

I gather it is!

NHV from passenger
 

Hi all
I am new to this forum and whilst not a pilot I am an OIM who works very closely with the NHV pilots on a daily basis and have found them to be very professional in their approach to safety. This Wednesday I believe they were only company not to fly from Norwich.
I however have not heard about the icing incident either.