Page 9 - Helicopter Safety

Petroleum Extension-The University of Texas at Austin
The Normal

Flight

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key to offshore transportation’s successful safety record is the Safety Regulations
A extreme caution exercised by the helicopter operating company
and its customers—the offshore drilling contractors and oil pro-
ducers whose crews and equipment are served by the helicopters.
The petroleum industry’s safety regulations for offshore helicopter
operations are stricter than those set by the Federal Aviation Admin-
istration. The FAA rules for commercial aircraft are more general
and broader because they are designed to cover a wide spectrum of
aircraft and functions.
Only slight variations in instructions and flight procedures exist
among all the helicopter transportation companies and their customers.
Modifications in instructions and procedures are designed to fulfill the
company’s specific safety regulations and provide what each company
believes to be the best in safety procedures.
For example, some companies require that, wherever pos-
sible, the helicopter’s engine be shut down and the rotors stopped
before any person approaches, leaves the craft, or while loading or
unloading any cargo. However, another company may require only
that personnel leaving or approaching a helicopter use caution and
crouch forward while in the area of the moving rotor blades. The
safest way for a passenger to embark (fig. 18) or disembark from
a helicopter is explained in the preboarding passenger briefing
videos and also written up in the safety features cards on board
the helicopter.

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