Annual British Petroleum/Bristow Helicopters Golf Outing.

Perth Golf Club is going to be the venue so a Bristow Tiger is loaded and off they go. A courtesy call to Perth airfield before landing at the course.
"I hope you can find it; we're socked in with fog."

Having failed to check the weather at their destination they were forced to turn back to Aberdeen. There they bundled the BP boys into the passenger lounge and searched for another gold course. Nairn was prepared to accept them so passengers rebriefed and off they went.

Arrive at Nairn, espy the course and there is a big crowd awaiting them so they land on a clear stretch of grass by the clubhouse. No 2 goes out to check that it is OK to shut down there to be met by irate club secretary: They had arrived in the middle of their monthly medals tournament.

Wrong golf course.

The second time was lucky and the day progressed but a little bit more rushed than planned.

When they arrived back at Aberdeen the rumour goes that BP were highly unimpressed. Next time the Forties contract renewal came up Bristow lost it.

If this happened in the 70s, it must have been a long contract, we were still flying to the 40s in 1984 before I left Aberdeen.

The Hutton and North West Hutton were often mixed up. I landed on the wrong one a couple of times in the late eighties and we received a few errent landings too in that period. Most of the time there is little consequence but it is important that we guard against those occasions where the loss of life is possible and not dismiss it as one of thise things

It probably was a Tiger. The one I went on was in a S61 which was a bit before then.

Care to tell us why you think these things happen to well trained and experienced crews?

What JuJu works to line up all those holes in the Cheese that lets landing on the wrong deck happen?

Because human beings are fallible and when you build platforms that look very similar close together, give them similar sounding names and then ask pilots to fly multiple sectors to them (more often than not under circumstances that are likely to induce fatigue and often worrying about the latest round of redundancies too) you are creating a situation where mistakes can occur.

It's been happening for as long a pilots have been landing on oil rigs.

It has serious potential dangers as listed by others.

Technological mitigations exist, such as red wave off lights / green deck clear lights but oil companies will not pay for these (Although safety is their number one priority) and operators won't insist because they are in a perpetual contract negotiation merry-go-round.

OH

Various failings? Maybe. Major incident? Hardly.

Grand Prix, Brands Hatch, mid 80's.
Happy to have got Nelson Piquet safely home after his win, but beginning to get tired after several hours of shuttling the great unwashed out of the circuit.
Another take off, including the multiple near-misses that were so much a part of GP shuttles in those days.
Reached cruise height, breathed out for the first time in over two minutes, and realized I had absolutely no clue which of the three shuttle sites I was supposed to be going to on this rotation.
Turned to the cabin and nonchalantly asked "Ummm, just checking that you're all going to Biggin?"
Small fracas breaks out in the cabin.
Resolved by doing a round-robin to all three sites until the cabin was empty.
Problem solved!

Having been at the front end for more than a few years and like many nearly involved in the same drama I have suggested in the past that the HLO gets more involved and only clears the aircraft to land when he sees it on final.



In past investigations the HLO’s have stated that they have observed the helicopter landing on the wrong facility but did not make any comments!

Of course you are correct - we are not talking 'Piper Alpha'-type major incident - but in an environment where everything is meant to be so closely monitored, controlled and carefully planned? For an aircraft to turn up on a rig uninvited is one thing, but to continue to land I would consider a 'major incident' in pilot CRM-aspect assessment of risk and breakdown of procedures.
My apologies, I did not want you to get too excited ;-)
I suspect that over-familiarity and slacking of procedures can be held responsible here - waiver following: This is merely a rumour forum and I have not the foggiest why it happened as I am fortunate to be many miles away from the scene and happy to take a calculated guess as no injuries, just pride :-)

For the cost of a Green Rotating Beacon on or adjacent to the Helideck....and the direct involvement of the HLO to turn it ON at the deck edge...signifying the Deck is ready to receive Aircraft......the problem could be solved.

The failure mode....no light ON....would signify a fouled deck and landing not allowed.....unless directely instructed to do so by the HLO of the Deck immediately prior to landing by the aircraft after visually sighting the aircraft.

That would allow for a failure or the rotating beacon for some reason but would require direct radio communication between the HLO and the aircraft and visual identification of the landing aircraft.

Or am I thinking all wrong here?

Not being any sort of expert of International Maritime Law but is it possible that a marine object can only display red/green lights for navigational purposes?

Not all wrong at all. Or even dual mode deck lighting: red & green. Either the deck edge lights, the central H lighting, or both. Lights would sit routinely at red, when the HLO is happy to receive the aircraft, he switches them to green. "Deck available, lights are green". If the deck the crew is looking at still has red lights, something's gone wrong!

Once the aircraft has lifted and is away, back to red they go.

Can't be that difficult shurely?

FED, Steady Red , Green and White (or combinations of those colors) for nautical navigation lights....thus the rotating beacon.....or strobes.

No expert but Submarines use a flashing Amber Light when surfaced as I recall.

My biggest bug bear is installations failing to have big bold names displayed at appropriate positions. Globally this is the case and the deck shouldn't get certified unless the operator does so. That would make the issue clear to all, including the muppets on short finals to land who can't follow the route plan or navigate for toffee.

AIS
 

Why don't all offshore helicopters have AIS receivers (tx not needed) with the rig identification displayed alongside the radar or nav display target? Almost all offshore installations, ships and boats transmit their identification and position. Receiving and displaying this in a modern helicopter should not be beyond the wit of man!

Because we have a radar with waypoints transposed over the display showing which rig corresponds to each return. Assuming they are rigs. Returns we don't recognise are usually standby vessels, fishing boats etc.

I guess ais would show what the unknown returns are, but I don't personally see the benefit or have ever though 'if only we had an ais display right now'