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Helicopter Flights Not Risky for Offshore Operations says Shell Boss
 mayo |
environment |
news report
 Friday June 13, 2008 18:11 by budgie
Another reason for Shell to adopt a safer offshore for Corrib.
One of the arguments for the way Shell want to operate the Corrib gas field has always been that using a production pipeline/ onshore refinery would limit the need for helicopter flights for workers.
Flights to and from offshore rigs are said to be dangerous. Local people have always countered that there was an element of choice in working for Shell, while they had no choice about living next to a high pressure production pipeline.
Now however, the director of air safety for Shell has said that helicopter flights are not actually that dangerous at all. An examination of 2,000 helicopter accidents has shown that it was poor air safety systems that were the problem, and the majority of accidents could have been prevented by following more stringent procedures.
 Shell Helicoptor- the company says offshore operations in Irish waters are too dangerous
Presenting a paper at the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Maritime Operations of Rotorcraft conference on Wednesday, Mr. Mark Stevens, Director Air Safety at Shell Aircraft International, compared offshore transport favourably with safety figures of commercial airlines.
Stevens's showed performance figures which put offshore transport in third place with 4.5 fatal per one million flying hours, compared to 2.0 per million for commuter airlines, and 0.6 for average commercial airlines.
Examining how safety has improved in fixed wing operations, he pointed out that damage tolerant design,improved reliability/crashworthiness, and flight data monitoring have all played their part in improved air safety.
Surprisingly, Shell has only started installing safety systems for helicopter flights in the last ten years.
An examination of more than 2,000 helicopter accidents carried out by Shell revealed that most accidents could have been prevented if aircraft met new airworthiness standards.
It seems that once proper heath and safety procedures are followed, there is no particular risk associated with offshore rig helicopter operation.
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Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4might be risky if they go over the Mull of Kintyre.... :D
A helicopter is a collection of spare parts flying in formation, with people in the middle. Every rig worker is trained in helicopter evacuation, sitting in a steel box in a tank of water that is pumped full of smoke while they have to find and put on their lifejackets and escape into freezing water. The training is supervised by frogmen in full diving gear to rescue the drowning idiots who inflate their lifejackets before getting out of the exit.
Oil industry helicopters are SO SAFE that you can find 53,000 Google hits at http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=oil-rig+helicopter+...crash including videos, death reports, adverts for class-action personal injury claims, etc.
That was then. This is now.
Shell say helicopters are safe for rig workers.
Shell say an offshore option for Corrib is not safe because the workers would have to fly in helicopters.
Which is it?
Which is it? The "favourable" comparison above states that offshore transport (does Stevens mean just helicopters, or supply boats too?) only kill 4.5 workers per million hours, which is 7 and a 1/2 times as much as commercial airline flights (in which he probably does include the horrendous decline in worldwide air safety since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the massive increase in incompetent civilian flights in the newly rich far east and Africa).
On the other hand, the "offshore" option in Ireland is quite different to the North Sea or equatorial rigs - the water is shallow, the weather is far less extreme and the staffing is low for production monitoring. A safety analyst should be comparing the expected and worst-case scenarios for offshore and onshore disasters.
Given that the Irish government sold the rights for a pound, you might expect Shell to take on the risk rather than the local population. Or a judicial review of the original rights sale.