commander

sorry mate, im not getting the saudi connection here?

Roadking

The helicopter went down in the North Sea, not off Saudi. The North Sea temperature is 2 degress max and is generally under 1 to -1. Add in the weather, the distances from safe haven and landing on an unstable pad and you have some idea of the realities.

Jeeper

Refering to Macscot worrying about flying to 40 rigs off saudi.

I'm not saying it's not dodgy....just wondering why it's any dodgier than going out in a boat (people die in them too but i'd never be afraid of either in general).

I do understand what you mean about flying about in the north sea tho

shakh your bootie

A boat is an inherently stable vehicle. If a rotorcraft goes wrong the only places its going is down, and in a hurry..... it's an inherently unstable structure. So is a Eurofighter, for that matter....

commander

ah get your point, yea for me its the weather. Its a wierd experience. I remember coming into land on the 40's Alpha (i think) and the chopper had to approach from a certain angle to catch a crosswind that came through the main production deck and basically we had to approach this head on. The pilot got this wrong and the chopper got thrown around quite violently before he rammed it down onto the deck.

The chopper usually ferries from platform to platform in the 40's field. I know guys that were not meant to alight on the 'A' get of and puke on the helipad.

Plus factor into this if the pilot misjudges the landing, its a hell of a drop into the sea.

remember the crash out here lately when a helo hit the leg of a jack-up and plummeted into the ogin.

im not scared of them, but i do get the 'butterflies' on approach or take off from a rig.

commander

and a helo is inherently top heavy..so its going down and then flip rather quickly..especially if a heavy swell hits it..

MacScot

..that went over their heads MH...whooooooossshhh !

commander

no we just chose to ignore the sexual connotations on a serious thread for once.

na it went over my head like a bond helo..

MacScot

..mainly because I lost friends in Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia from helicopter crashes..I just felt the more you travel in them the higher your chances of an incident occurring. Choppers usually go down fast...at least planes you can glide a bit longer.

A few times its not a catastrophic failure of the engines or rear rotor..a common incident with fatalities in PNG was helicopters following rivers and colliding with wire ropes spanning the river - having been put up by hydrologists for flow monitoring.

Roadking

Takes me at least 3 days to answer an MH post...just in case I get it wrong, again!

MacScot

...she won't bite...but you might get a licking (i.e, a telling off not some other connotation !).

shiva

apparantly the ee broke the story

http://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/Article.aspx/1151691

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1152026

just hoping i didnt know anyone on board and feeling bad for those families.

life expectancy for a north sea ditch without a survival suit is under 5 minutes with one its a couple of hours as commander says it is not a pleasant environment even on a good day

StublueKPL

Im offshore at the moment in Angola.

i dont particularly mind choppers but they most definitely arent the safest mode of transport.

One of the guys says it was the Miller platform? I dont really know that many people offshore on platforms but a few of the older guys do.

I hope these guys are found but im sure that anyone who uses the chopper will know how low their chances are. heres hoping.

Inselaffen

so you spent a lot of time surrounded by rough aberdonians and Texans. No wonder you don't have an accent

commander

yea miller platform. Ive been on there a few years ago doing a survey of their power systems.

poor ****ers had no chance