Yesterday, I had the sombre duty of signing a book of condolence for four oil workers who died in a helicopter crash off the coast of Shetland on Friday.
The book, which has been opened by the Oil and Gas Chaplaincy at the Kirk of St Nicholas, was filling up with the best wishes and heartfelt condolences from a community that is very close to the oil and gas industry.
This is a community that has had to deal with its fair share of tragedy from offshore accidents and the deaths of George Allison, Sarah Darnley, Duncan Munro and Gary McCrossan had clearly hit the people of the north-east hard. Many of those who signed the book will have known those who died and many more will know somebody who works offshore.
Thankfully, since the Piper Alpha disaster, the oil and gas sector has made the safety of its workers a priority, but we must remember that working offshore can never be without risks. We owe it to those who are involved in incidents such as this to learn any lessons that come from the investigation and do everything in our power to prevent them happening.
That is why it is vital that the Air Accidents Investigations Branch is given the space and time to complete its investigations.
Given the impact of this tragedy, it is perfectly understandable that people across Scotland and the wider oil and gas industry want to know what happened quickly, but speculation and conjecture around the causes and reasons behind it will do nothing to help the investigation and could hinder the efforts to get to the facts.
While this process is ongoing, I think the decision taken by the Helicopter Safety Steering Group to suspend all Super Puma offshore flights is correct.
It is important that those who work offshore can have confidence in the aircraft that transport them to work, and only by carrying out a thorough investigation such as this can that confidence be restored.
The Scottish Government will do everything it can to support the investigation and help the industry deal with this latest tragedy.
We also remain committed to ensuring that the emergency services, who deal so brilliantly with incidents such as these, are ably supported.
Once again, the response from the police, coastguard and other emergency workers to this crash was first-class, underlining how much we rely on their professionalism, expertise and courage.
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