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5. Offshore Helicopter Transport Safety Record
5.1 Background
Since 1976, commercial air transport helicopter flight statistics and reportable accident data for UKCS offshore
operations have been collected by the CAA under its mandatory occurrence reporting (MOR) scheme. During this
38-year period up to year-end 2013, more than 64.5 million passengers have been transported to and from UKCS
offshore installations with over 7.5 million flights made (sectors flown), consuming over 3.5 million flying hours.
Regrettably, during this period, 13 fatal accidents have claimed the lives of 117 offshore workers and flight crew.
There have been 60 non-fatal accidents.
To provide a report that is representative of today’s offshore flight operations using a fleet of modern helicopters,
data for the last 20 years (from 1994 to 2013) have been used for comparative purposes. With this in mind and as a
measure of current UKCS activity, in 2013, just over 131,600 sectors were flown consuming 77,200 flight hours and
transporting over 1.1 million passengers offshore. Since 1994, four fatal accidents have claimed the lives of
38 offshore workers and flight crew and there have been 18 non-fatal accidents.
From 1994 to 2013, a large number of safety enhancements have been introduced to UKCS helicopter operations.
These improvements have resulted from a number of industry-led initiatives and CAA research projects and are
summarised in section 5.5
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5.2 Current Helicopter Types
At the end of 2013, the UKCS helicopter fleet numbered 97 aircraft and comprised a mix of airframe types.
Current helicopter types used for UKCS offshore oil and gas support are shown in Figure 19.
Figure 19: Current Helicopter Types used for UK Continental Shelf Offshore Oil and Gas Support
Type
Weight Class
Introduced
In fleet
Eurocopter AS365 N3 (Dauphin)
Medium
1979
4
Sikorsky S76
Medium
1980
7
AgustaWestland AW139
Medium
2005
17
Eurocopter EC155
Medium
2007
6
Eurocopter AS332 L (Super Puma)
Heavy
1982
7
Eurocopter AS332 L2 (Super Puma)
Heavy
Pre 2005
13
Eurocopter EC225 (Super Puma 2)
Heavy
2005
22
Sikorsky S92
Heavy
2005
21
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For a full and detailed list of industry-led safety initiatives and CAA research projects see the appendix provided on the
Oil & Gas UK website at
