Offshore safety trainers often out of the loop

The people who train Newfoundland and Labrador offshore workers to escape from a chopper after it crashes into the ocean say they are often left out of the loop when changes are made to helicopters and their operations.

The admission came Tuesday in St. John's at the Offshore Helicopter Safety Inquiry, in which former judge Robert Wells is looking into how to make offshore travel safer, following a crash in March that killed 17 of 18 people on a Cougar helicopter that was travelling to oil platforms off Newfoundland.  

One of the examples of poor communication the inquiry heard about involved an auxiliary fuel tank that Cougar Helicopters had installed inside the passenger compartment of the chopper that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. The tank was located where a window seat is normally attached to the floor.

Greg Harvey, a safety trainer at the Offshore Survival and Safety Centre in Foxtrap, N.L., was asked by an inquiry lawyer how the presence of the fuel tank would affect an attempt by someone to escape through the windows.

"I think it would be very difficult, if not impossible," Harvey responded.

He said Cougar didn't tell trainers about the added tank when the company started using it years ago. Harvey said he only noticed it during a visit to the base where the helicopter was stationed.

Bob Rutherford, the training centre's director, confirmed for the inquiry that there is no formal mechanism in place to notify trainers when any such changes are made, and that often leaves people like him and Harvey out of the loop.  

"Certainly we're not consulted on this.... There's no direct line of communication," he said. "We find out about changes generally by our instructors taking a trip to the helicopter heliport."

Wells addressed the issue at the end of the day.

"We have here several solitudes," he said, "and I don't think that's a good thing for safety. I don't think it's a good thing for the industry or for the community in a broader sense."

Wells said to improve offshore safety, everyone has to work together to tear down the walls that prevent key information from being shared. He suggested a high-level committee be put in place to oversee the sharing of information, one that he said would represent everyone who has a stake in the safety of the offshore oil industry.

Wells is expected to file a report by March 31 with recommendations on how to improve offshore safety.