Leaders of Britain’s offshore and pilots’ unions yesterday called
for a judicial review to discover why “helicopters keep falling out of
the sky” in the UK sector of the North Sea.
MPs on Westminster’s powerful transport select committee
heard concerns about the safety of offshore flights in Britain’s oil
and gas industry had heightened as a result of the Super Puma crash off Shetland
last August in which four oil workers were killed – the fifth incident
involving helicopters in the British sector in four years.
Captain
Colin Milne, of the helicopter affairs committee of pilots’ union
Balpa, warned the decision to make the European Aviation Safety Agency
the “overarching authority” for aviation safety in Europe could lead to a
reduction in Britain’s “gold standard” approach to helicopter
operations in the North Sea.
The members of the select committee
traveled to Aberdeen yesterday to visit helicopter firm bases in the
city and take evidence at Aberdeen University from union
representatives, helicopter operators and manufacturers, and
representatives of Oil and Gas UK.
John Taylor, regional
industrial organizer of Unite, claimed helicopter companies were facing
commercial pressures in running their offshore crew change flight
operations.
He told the MPs: “I believe that commercial pressure
is operating in the industry. There are operators from outwith the UK
that are coming into the industry and they don’t have the same
structures that we have.”
He added: “The fact of the matter is
that helicopters keep falling out of the sky and crashing in the UK
sector. The fact of the matter is that the offshore workforce wish to
find out why that is happening.”
Earlier Capt Milne pressed the
case for a judicial review into offshore helicopter safety to examine
the amount of control exercised by oil companies on helicopter flights
and the role of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in policing offshore
safety in the aviation sector.
He told MPs: “What pilots want is
that they operate at a high minimum level and that can only be enforced
by the CAA as the regulator. We want an independent and strong and
well-resourced regulator.”
Mike Imlach, managing director of
Bristow Helicopters, told MPs: “I can honestly say we have never been
under commercial pressure where we have felt it is unsafe to continue a
flight. If I don’t have the full parameters of safety and crews on the
aircraft we will not fly, irrespective of the commercial pressure we may
receive from a client.”
Committee chair Louise Ellman MP said
after the hearing: “Five serious accidents in four years is a matter of
grave concern. We want to find out how to improve that record.”
Story and comments/reaction: http://www.scotsman.com
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