Union bosses have backed calls for a full public inquiry into North Sea helicopter safety amid fears that commercial factors influence whether a helicopter flies.
They also want to see a “light touch” regulatory process toughened up to reduce the risk of another accident after a string of incidents and 20 deaths in recent years.
Giving evidence at a Commons transport committee hearing in Aberdeen yesterday, John Taylor, regional organiser for the Unite union, said: “Helicopters keep falling out of the sky … and the offshore workforce wants to find out why.”
All three North Sea helicopter operators – Bond, Bristow and CHC – were represented at the hearing, held at Aberdeen University.
Bond’s Luke Farajallah, Bristow’s Mike Imlach and CHC’s Duncan Trapp insisted commercial pressures had no bearing on whether aircraft took off.
They told MPs carrying out their own probe into helicopter safety that contracts would not be signed if the extra work would stretch their resources and impact on safety.
Mr Farajallah, Bond’s managing director, added: “We would simply walk away.”
Six helicopter accidents in seven years in the North Sea have raised concerns about the operators’ workload but Mr Trapp, CHC vice-president, safety and quality, said there was no evidence of commercial factors playing any part.
Mr Imlach, director of Bristow’s European unit, added: “We do not submit to commercial pressures. If we feel a flight should not go, it will not go.”
Robert Paterson, health, safety and employment issues director for energy industry body Oil and Gas UK, denied there was pressure from North Sea customers.
“Nobody is consciously jeopardising safety,” said Mr Paterson, adding he would rather people waited until ongoing investigations into helicopter accidents were out of the way before any decision to hold a public inquiry.
The transport committee launched its probe after last year’s crash off Shetland, when four people died. The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) wants an independent judicial inquiry.
In a statement yesterday, Balpa’s general-secretary Jim McAuslan said: “The hundreds of pilots flying the North Sea offshore day-in, day-out want everything put under the microscope and examined objectively, including whether ‘light-touch’ regulation is right for this safety-critical industry.”
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