Health & Safety Report 2017

HEALTH & SAFETY REPORT 2017

4.3 Offshore Helicopter Reportable Accidents on the UK Continental Shelf All flight safety occurrences, as deemed reportable by CAA’s CAP 382, are reported to the CAA using the MOR scheme. There are reports submitted every month, providing constant oversight of safety-related occurrences. From 1997 to 2016, four fatal accidents claimed the lives of 38 offshore workers and flight crew. Two accidents were caused by catastrophic component failure and two attributed to human factors. Sixteen reportable non-fatal accidents have also occurred since 1997. The causes include major component failures, pilot error, lightning strikes, major airframe damage, and main and tail rotor damage. In most cases, only the helicopter was damaged but, infrequently, these accidents have resulted in injury to personnel. After almost three accident-free years, a non-fatal accident occurred in 2016. As a result, the UKCS’ five-year average all accident rate has increased from 0.72 to 0.95 per 100,000 flying hours. The accident rate data show that the five-year average for fatal accidents sits consistently below 0.2 per 100,000 flying hours.

The following graphs illustrate the distribution of UKCS fatal and all reportable accidents from 1997 to 2016, as well as fatal and all accident rates per 100,000 flying hours.

Figure 20: Fatal and All Accidents Distribution

Fatal Accidents All Accidents Flying hours

120,000

5

100,000

4

80,000

3

60,000

2

40,000

Number of Accidents

Number of Flying Hours

1

20,000

0

0

Source: Oil & Gas UK

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

30