The North Sea

[Russ Kennedy]

Our condolences to the families of those lost in the latest North Sea tragedy. Good wishes to those who survived what must have been an absolute nightmare!

[Captain Kong]

I think those North Sea helicopters are over worked without enough time off for Servicing.
My step daughters partner flies out to many Rigs and it is unusual for him to fly there and back without an incident.
After nearly two hundred miles out to a Rig just about to land, a red light shows on the dash board, No Landing, fly two hundred miles back to Sumbora, Shetland, to fix it, then take off the survival suit, wait a few hours then put the survival suit back on and take off again for another two hundred miles.
He says this happens many times , all the way out, cannot land all the way back, maybe fog etc. His nerves were shattered , he has hit the vodka bottle and is now in Rehab at £2,000 a week for a few weeks.
Brian.

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi Shipmates,Hope he gets well soon Captain Kong.

[Chris Allman]

The rig workers do a dangerous job and could do without a dangerous trip backward and forwards to work. I take my hat off to them all, very brave people. Obtaining energy resources no matter what, oil, gas and coal is a dangerous business with the constant potential for loss of life. I feel that when people turn on the light or the central heating, they don't always think of the people working 24 x 7 x 365 who have made it possible, they are only thought of when an accident happens, unsung heroes all.

[cappy]

had a mate brian in fleet air arm flying copters sai nobody liked them and he was never 100 percent happy ....me personally I would go from a rig in a boat more happily even if it took longer....theres been to many choppers down from the rigs ....but I don't think anything like as many boats.......there again imolder now but in our youth we never believe it couldhappen to us sympathies to the families cappy

[Captain Kong]

I had a three month assignment flying with Court Helicopters out of Cape Town, a few scary moments in bad weather.
we serviced ships with stores and crew changes, rescued men in ship wrecks, and transferred Lighthouse keepers to Dassen Island and took prisoners from Polsmore Prison to Robin Island.
On the Katrina Maersk one night, around 2am. south of the Cape we shipped three big seas over us on the fore deck , our winchman was swept away down the deck, we left him behind and took off, Up a couple of hundred feet when the whole craft started to shake violently and then we crashed into the ocean A 60mph gale was blowing with heavy seas,
I was in the cockpit looking verticularly upwards at wave tops. extremely scary. We just missed the ships side. or we would have turned over and curtains.
The Sikorsky 68N has a boat hull and so we floated rising up 50 feet or so then crashing down the other side.
Pumping the throttles contiuously got a bit of rotation with kept us upright in the water. The tanker came around to give us a lee
. A Mayday went out and two Coastguard cutters came out and escorted us, still pumping frantically on the throttles to keep us upright in the heavt sea, and eventually after a life time we slid up the beach at Green Point.
We broke out the Sea King and went back out to find Tkki, the winchman.
When we returned we had to hose down the twin turbines to get rid of the salt.
When sea water gets into the engines, the water evaporates and the salt Chrystals jam the turbine blades.
I wrote about it in Seafaring Stories thread in Swinging the Lamp.
Cheers
Brian

[Russ Kennedy]

I worked in Aberdeen for 22 years with quite a few offshore trips. Completed the survival course and firefighting course (mandatory for any one going offshore). Unfortunately it is just about impossible to simulate a real emergency, especially a helicopter ditching! (The underwater evacuation training course is completed in a very controlled environment). Every individual behaves differently in a real emergency, I think it was a miracle that so many survived this incident, especially as the chopper turned turtle! Everyone that works offshore on a rota basis deserves a medal!! Including the folk who crew the helicopters!

[j.sabourn]

Russ, I worked for a few offshore companies. There was hardly a year went by when there wasn't at least one chopper ditching. It was often a topic of conversation when the next catastrophe was due. Unfortuanetly a lot of paraffin budgies as we called them came down in the winter months, thus increasing the odds of survival for their occupants. Cheers John Sabourn

[j.sabourn]

I did a lot of chopper flying out here in Oz. To get anywhere even on land it takes a lot of time in the air. As the courses done out here encompassed the HUET course together with survival in the sea afterwards, and as one of the hazards would be shark attacks, the instructions were for the survivors to form a circle in the water as to present a bigger target to would be predators. Think I have mentioned this before, one of the instructors his famous party piece every 2 years that I saw him was, that if there were any females in the company not to invite her into the daisy chain in case it was the wrong time of the month. Cheers John Sabourn

[gray_marian]

Re #9
To quote the last line of Nat King Cole song "Dinner for one please James"