I bring you a weekly bite-sized chunk of the science behind helicopter human factors and CRM in practice, simplifying the complex and distilling a helicopter related study into a summary of less than 500 words.
TITLE:
Addressing Differences in Safety Influencing Factors – A Comparison of Offshore and Onshore Helicopter Operations.
WHAT?
A study analysing contributory factors to help explain the differing accident rates in offshore and onshore operations in Norway.
WHEN?
Published 2018.
WHERE?
Norwegian offshore and onshore helicopter industry.
WHY?
In Norway a significant difference in accident rates was evident between offshore and onshore helicopters ( 2.8 fatal accidents/million flight hours, 1990-2015 vs 13.8 fatal accidents/million flight hours, 2000-2012 respectively). This study attempted to answer the question why, noting that throughout the helicopter industry there are also significant differences in accident frequency between countries, industry segments and time periods.
HOW?
Comparative analysis of qualitative and quantitative accident and incident data from national industry & literature review of international research on helicopter safety.
FINDINGS:
- A comparison of differences between operational tasks & hazards (“Sharp End”) alone is not sufficient to explain difference in accident rates. Sharp end factors include: type of task (e.g. pax/aerial work) type of airspace (controlled or uncontrolled); flight rules (IFR vs VFR);
- The socio-technical context or “Blunt End” of an industry segment plays a significant role in the safety record at the “sharp end”.
- Differences in “Blunt End”factors identified between onshore and offshore operations included:
- Customer ability and willingness to pay for safety improving measures. (e.g. Technological differences such as HUMS/ HTAWS etc.)
- Customer requirements (e.g. pilot experience & safety requirements).
- Customer accountability for operational safety.
- Employment conditions and contract standards (e.g. permanent vs temporary contracts or bases)
- Training requirements (e.g. use and frequency of simulator training)
- Level of administrative operational support and supervision.
- Crew composition (multi-crew offshore vs single pilot onshore).
SO WHAT?
- The most absolute and meaningful measure of retrospective safety performance is accident rates over time. By comparing accident rate between industry segments it is possible to derive the kind of “blunt end” factors which impact safety.
- Important safety lessons can be learned from the context of the socio-technical system of each industry segment; i.e. variations in operational tasks, safety regimes, regulations, training, employment conditions, crew composition, and technology.
- Industry or sector safety records cannot be adequately explained without accounting for these differences.
REFERENCE:
Bye, R.J., Johnsen, S.O., Lillehammer, G. (2018). Addressing differences in safety influencing factors – a comparison of offshore and onshore helicopter operations. Safety, 4,4: dog:10.3390/safety4010004
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