Bristow Helicopters Refuse to Reveal Reason for Super Puma Emergency
Bristow Helicopters has refused to give Oil and Gas People any information on today’s emergency return to base involving a Super Puma EC225.
Bristow Helicopters has refused to give Oil and Gas People any information on today’s emergency return to base involving a Super Puma EC225.
The flight was making its way offshore when it turned around just after 9am this morning. The helicopter was reported squawking on the emergency frequency 7700 as other flights were put into a holding pattern above Aberdeen in order to allow the helicopter to make an emergency landing.
Oil and Gas People has been leading the calls for Helicopter operators to be more open with passengers as to the reasons for RTB incidents. Other news outlets are happy to print the same standard statement each time a RTB occurs but Oil and Gas People refuses to follow the company line regarding warning lights and the usual statement of following standard operating procedures. This comes after multiple RTB incidents played down in the press were later revealed to be serious gearbox and engine issues.
Other Helicopter operators have started to reveal more information to Oil and Gas People quickly when a RTB happens but Bristow Helicopters seems keen to keep passengers in the dark.
Oil and Gas People is very much a voice for the oil industry. We are now the most popular oil and gas job and news site globally getting more traffic in the UK than any other industry news site. This fact seems lost on Yvonne Devine, Spokeswoman for Bristow Helicopters who would only give us this statement: “Bristow only shares information with legitimate news outlets and we have done so today”
By legitimate we can only assume Bristow means the outlets that print their standard statements and don’t further question these incidents.
Step Change in Safety has also refused to respond to us when asked why they are failing in their agreed undertaking to report each RTB on their website. Once again todays news section, where Step Change themselves said they would report each RTB has no mention of the Super Puma Incident.
The incident happened on the day the final AAIB report into the 2013 Sumburgh Helicopter tragedy blamed pilot error and made 26 new safety recommendations for North Sea helicopters.
