In a series of news items in Canada, sixteen offshore oil rig workers are now being considered lost after their helicopter went down in the Atlantic ocean on Thursday. One body has been recovered, one survivor rescued; sixteen others missing and presumed lost. The search was called off Friday evening and is now focusing on finding the helicopter and recovering the bodies. The sole survivor is in critical condition.
The problem is the nature of offshore oil and gas production: You can’t hop on the bus to get to the job. The ‘bus to work’ is a hours-long helicopter flight over the stormy, cold, deep, iceberg-laden Atlantic ocean. That’s where the job is and that’s how you get to work for two weeks at a stretch.
By an only slightly inaccurate and cynical definition, a helicopter is 30,000 highly-fatigued, over-stressed aluminum parts flying in very close formation with people in it.
A helicopter violates most of the laws of physics and gravity. The only reason it flies is the combination of the main rotor pushing air down and the tail rotor keeping the whole thing from spinning counter-clockwise. Helicopters can’t actually glide like that US Air flight that ditched in the Hudson River a few weeks ago. If the rotors stop working, then gravity takes hold and Gravity Always Works.
True, to be accurate, helicopters can autorotate, letting the main rotor spin without engine power, as long as you have 300 feet of height and 30 knots forward speed. But an autorotate landing is a controlled crash at the best of times and you have less than ten seconds to figure out where you’re going to land. (I’ve been in one autorotate landing in a Hughes 500 and never, ever, want to be in one again, thank you, very much.)
Yes, they were already in survival suits and had all taken their recurrent training in how to get out of a sinking helicopter and survive at sea. That’s part of the job description for an offshore rig worker. A real emergency landing, hard, in the sea during a gale means the conditions of the training tank and procedures training can only be guidelines that might help, a little bit.
As the investigation goes forward we might find that there are things we can do better, but right now it appears the system worked as well as it could. Sadly, sixteen people are likely dead, despite the best efforts of all involved.
Their families, friends and communities will miss them greatly.
RoadDave 