The North Sea

[Ian Walker]

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

Hi Cappy, I also know a guy called Brian who flew in the fleet air arm also from the north east lives in Scotland now?

[cappy]

Ian his 2nd name was ferguson his old man royal navy malta based

[Ian Walker]

Cappy, I don't know his surname, his sister in law is a good friend of mine and when he visits her I play golf with him, I will ask her and let you know.

[Trebor]

.........just about to land, a red light shows on the dash board, No Landing, fly two hundred miles back

I work offshore in the East Irish Sea, we've had a few of those in the last few years, though in 25 years it has never happened on a flight I was on, until last trip. Just about to land on the Platform, red light, turn round and back to Blackpool, most disconcerting! Fortunately our flight is only 15 minutes so not too long in the air. As I'm sure you'll know the engines are put under far more strain when landing on the small target of a helideck than when making an approach to an airport runway, where they can more or less glide in. So I suppose it makes more sense to turn round and go back if there is an indication ofan engine problem although they may appear to be running OK.

I'm due to retire in 20 months, but when I hear of incidents such as the one this past week, it does make me wonder if I should go early!

We had a helicopter disaster in 2006, it is the only one we've had, thankfully, but that was awful, all 9 passengers and crew died, it deeply affected everyone that worked on the platform. My thoughts and condolences go out to all those related and those who worked with those poor four souls that lost their lives last week.

Bob

[cappy]

ian it would be interesting if it was the same guy his father was a retired rn commander and he a fleet air arm pilot ....iholidayed in malta with my wife and 2 kids for 6 or 7 years and had a buddy who gave me the use of a boat so we cruised round the grand harbour etc.....his father was old type rn gent and a very knowlegable person serving in ww2 ....the son invited me and my wife to a cocktail party filled with pink gin officers etc and warned me there was lord Southampton there.....didn't much appeal to me but off we went ....me having a good drinkand him keep saying come on and iwill introduce you to lord Southampton.....last thing I wanted didn't feel up to that .....eventually the lord came over stuck out his hand and just said Southampton .....to which not sure what to say I just said south shields....his reply was oh .....then he moved on giving me a strange look my friend at the time nearly choked on his drink..and we both scuttled out tears in our eyes .....sorry if this storyis classed as a joke to some people but it is as happened .....keep me informed as to your friends name

[Captain Kong]

Hi Bob.
regarding the Helicopter crash in the Irish sea by the Rigs, 2006, there is a new Memorial stone, near to the Lifeboat station in Fleetwood, with the names of the six men who were killed, it is in Black Marble. An excellent one.
Cheers
Brian.

[Trebor]

I had heard about the memorial, I'll have to check it out next time I'm in Fleetwood. There should be 7 names on it (I said 9 in my original post, a typo on my part), 6 bodies were recovered, 1 was never found.

Cheers

Bob

[j.sabourn]

As well as civilian choppers there are also military ones which one doesn't hear about too much. Was a collision by 2 naval ones in the English Channel in the eighties, and we had to recover the aircraft and the bodies. One of the bodies slid out of the cockpit and was never recovered to my knowledge, the other 2 were returned to Portsmouth out of sight of the public gaze. The civilian one which went down off the Scilly Isles was a bad disaster as there were quite a lot of bodies to recover and had been down for some time so the smell cant have been too pleasant, this was also in the eighties. The ship I was on the Seaforth Clansman was involved in this recovery, I was home on leave at the time so counted my lucky stars. The tornado that came down in the Irish sea also in the 80"s was a bit different as hit the water at an estimated 1000 knots, there it was looking for body parts. This aircraft at the time was on the top secret list and had 2 of a crew. These sort of accidents occur quite frequently and it is only when some reporter thinks he has a story that the general public are made aware. Cheers John Sabourn

[j.sabourn]

Anybody working in the offshore industry nowadays is conversant with helicopter transfers. The seismic ships I have been on never came into port, not even for stores fuel and water. All is replenished at sea and the work what is called shooting never ceases for such and has to be timed when vessel is on a straight run and not turning. The only time I saw shooting suspended when we had to by law have a whale watcher on board who used to insist on all underwater explosions being suspended. What happened in the night when whales could not be sighted makes the whole exercise to me a bit of a farce. Anyhow a whale is not stupid like some of the watchers, if he or she is experiencing discomfort they will clear off. I never pointed out any whales to these people as considered them surplus to the requirements of the ship. Any problems with the seismic cable sometimes towing up to 12 cables 4 miles astern and was repaired while moving from a small ships FRC or a special boat for the purpose. Most crew members including all the bridge people have to have done a coxns course. As well as this most crew members were put through a Helicopter Landing Officers course and had to communicate with the pilot by radio, landing and taking off and had to give the pilot a green deck for go or a red deck for no go. All crew changes were done like this usually in 2 stages over two days so as to have those familiar with the ship able to pass on. I have worked on rigs and ships where helicopters were landing and taking off all day, to me it a damn sight more difficult for a pilot to land on a moving and sometimes rolling small area, than to land on a small football pitch that some of the rigs and platforms had. Cheers John Sabourn

[j.sabourn]

Some of the certificates the employer used to look for when he took men on for work offshore, maybe there will be more now, so those still working maybe able to add to.
HUET Helicopter Underwater Escape techniques ( Compulsory to be able to fly over water )
Fire Fighting (current)
First Aid (current)
Basic Sea Survival (current)
FRC Fast Rescue Craft
W.T. Certificate
Helicopter Landing Officer
Oil Dispersant.
It costs quite a bit of money to do these courses so if do not have a sponsor like your prospective employer you have to outlay money to get a return. However the pay on the rigs in the North Sea when I was employed there was about at least 50 per cent more than the seamen. Cheers John Sabourn