The UK’s aviation watchdog has revealed plans to make unmanned North Sea platforms safer for helicopter crews.

The Civil Aviation Authority tabled the proposals in response to concerns about the region's 116 unattended facilities.

Plans include only allowing helicopters to travel to unmanned installations if they can fly safely on one engine, equipping choppers with “crashworthy” systems to reduce the chance of fire after a collision and installing fire-fighting systems on unattended helidecks.

Mark Swan, CAA director of safety and airspace, said: “The safety of the offshore flying has increased considerably over the past year.

“One area we want to focus on specifically is flights to unattended installations which, because there may be no one on the rig to assist following an accident, don’t have the same level of safety as manned rigs.

“We will therefore progress this work as a priority to ensure offshore workers flying to these installations have the highest levels of safety possible. We believe the initial proposals are both proportionate and achievable and will address the risk.”

All helicopters currently operating in the North Sea - including the EC225 Super Puma and Sikorsky S92 - are capable of flying with one engine. However, restrictions may still affect some models based on their performance flying with a single engine.

Source: news.stv.tv

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