The recent Bristow Helicopters crash, barely five months after a similar incident involving the same airline left six dead, has become a source of concern for stakeholders in the aviation sector as well as the oil and gas industry for which it provides services. THISDAY reports it is high time the company addressed its safety challenges.
There was angst in the air when the news of another Bristow Helicopters crash broke out penultimate Wednesday. The February 3 crash occurred barely five months after a similar incident, involving the same airline left six persons dead while six others survived the crash. Unlike the last August air crash, all the 11 persons on board the Bristow helicopter with registration number, 5N-BQJ, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, February 3, at about 10:30 am, cheated death. They were all rescued alive.
The pilot; Captain Abimbola Jayeola was prompted to engage in controlled ditching of the aircraft and landed it in the Atlantic Ocean. The accident, according to Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) involved a Sikorsky S76 C++ helicopter type, the same type that crashed in August last year.
Bristow said in official statement that the aircraft had departed on a routine crew transfer flight offshore with nine passengers and a crew of two. The airline confirmed that all the persons onboard were accounted.
Controlled Ditching
Controlled ditching is a planned event in which a flight crew knowingly makes a controlled emergency landing in water. This means that the pilot, who had been praised for her courage and expertise, noticed alarming signal in the aircraft and deployed floating gears, which enabled the helicopter land safely in water and floated until the souls on board were rescued.
This was confirmed by AIB on Monday when it issued an interim investigative report on the accident.
The Bureau said that investigation showed that before the pilot ditched the chopper, she sent out an emergency signal and called May Day, May Day twice and complained of instrument failure in the chopper.
The helicopter was ditched with nine passengers and a two-man crew on board. Although there were no fatalities, its passengers sustained minor injuries during rescue operations after the aircraft landed in the Ocean.
AIB said the helicopter had departed the Erha oil platform en route Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
“The crew declared mayday twice. The first was declared 78 nautical miles from Lagos complaining of instrument problems. The aircraft descended from 3,000 feet to 1,500 feet. At this time the flying officer (FO) was the pilot flying (PF).
“The captain took over control expecting to stabilise the helicopter but the aircraft was not responding to control inputs. She declared the second mayday to the radio operator at the offshore platform, which was relayed to the (Air Traffic Control) ATC by two separate aircraft. One aircraft was following the communications and relayed the ditching, which occurred at 10.20 am, 29 nautical miles away from the platform,” AIB said.
Meritorious Service
Bristow is synonymous with Nigeria’s oil and gas sector. It started full operations in Nigeria since 1969 and has continued to play pivotal roles, providing critical service to the oil and gas industry.
As a response to the latest incident, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has suspended the operations of the aircraft type, Sikorsky S-76C until further notice.
Director-General of NCAA, Captain Muhtar Usman explained that the suspension was to enable the authority carry out a full-scale audit on Bristow operations with particular emphasis on its Sikorsky S-76C++ type.
Accidents
Bristow has recorded many accidents in its operations in Nigeria and many involved the same aircraft type, Sikorsky S-76C++ which was also involved in one of the company’s most tragic accidents on August 12 last year, which led to the death of six persons, including the pilot and the co-pilot.
Many industry operators, who spoke to THISDAY blamed NCAA for what they termed the regulatory body’s laxity in monitoring non-schedule airline operators.
One of such operators said: “NCAA gives them too much latitude. The aircraft malfunctioned and landed in water. The pilot had enough time to deploy protection gears, which enabled safe evacuation and the souls on board were in the water for two hours before they were rescued. Crashing into the water was able to cushion the impact on contact, which enabled safe evacuation; had it happened on land, the crash would have been tragic,” the source said.
Although informed source from the company said rescue took place immediately after the crash landing in water and that the helicopter involved in the accident could still be salvaged, but industry insiders said the aircraft would have been declared a total loss because “if it just landed on water on choice it means it would still take off again, but the truth is that there was a technical fault that forced it to land on water.”
Ill -fated Helicopter
However, the Director of Airworthiness Standards of NCAA, Benedict Adeyileka explained that ideally the aircraft could be salvaged but the gravity occasioned by the landing might have prompted the chopper to react beyond the planned control arrangement. In other words, the helicopter on impact on water reacted beyond planned control, hence the level of damage that could be ascertained when its carcass was taken off water.
THISDAY also learnt that not many major incidents and accidents involving Bristow and similar service providers are reported, especially when they happen at remote locations and there are allegations of compromise on safety, which simply explained the many accidents that have taken place in the operations of the company. But the company has refuted such allegation, noting that its Target Zero safety apparatus is unparalleled.
It is also the opinion of industry insiders that Bristow has taken more jobs, “more than its operational capacity in Nigeria. They are biting off more than they can chew and some of their contracts that ought to expire are allowed to have the bid uncompleted so that they would continue to provide service on ad-hoc basis. So they continue to renew their contracts in addition to signing in new ones,” one of the inside sources alleged.
But the critics acknowledged that despite the accidents, Bristow remains the biggest aviation service provider to the oil and gas industry and because it is the largest capacity provider, it is only natural that the company could record more incidents and possible accidents. They also acknowledged that considering the number of years the company has operated in Nigeria, it still holds a high record of safety in its operations.
Experience
The industry operators spoke about the experience of Bristow pilots and said that according to worldwide oil and gas helicopter standards, the minimum experience of the pilot and co-pilot is 15 years, but the total experience of the pilot and the co-pilot of the ill-fated helicopter that killed six people last year was 11. They urged the NCAA and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation to ensure that Bristow abides by this standard “because it will help to save lives.”
On July 14, 2011, Bristow’s fixed wing aircraft, Cessna Citation 560XLS with registration number, 5N-BMM crash-landed at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa with no loss of lives. But in the AIB report of the accident, the Bureau noted that the causal factor of the accident was “The decision of the pilot to continue the approach without the required visual references;” then the contributory factors were poor crew co-ordination and the pairing of two captains together. The report also added that the weather during the crash-landing at the airport; was marginal. Overall, the accident was caused by human error, which raises the question on training.
Those who spoke to THISDAY expressed worries that the lives of highly skilled Nigerians both in aviation and oil and gas are put at risk, so every effort should be made to avert future accidents.
However, NCAA source told THISDAY that the operations of the company would be thoroughly reviewed to prevent future accidents.
It said it also has to be noted that Bristow has trained so many Nigerians and most helicopter pilots and engineers operating in similar service providing companies today were trained by Bristow, but in terms of local content, many in the industry said although Nigerians are growing as pilots and engineers in the company, but the company needs to further reduce its expatriate staff in order to give more Nigerians more managerial roles.
THISDAY however learnt that the company recently reduced its expatriate quota but cannot confirm whether it fully abides by government’s local content.
Being a successful helicopter company cornering major jobs in the oil and gas industry, Bristow could be the butt of attacks from competitors. An operator after the February 3, 2016 accident told THISDAY, “Bristow should not strive to get all the jobs. It should not be like a man who is carrying an elephant on his head and he is using his toes to grab a cricket. It should also reflect government’s local content policy in its operations; it should not be seen as eye-service thing with sniggering discontent and ‘diplomatese’. Bristow should maintain the standard it has elsewhere in Nigeria because that is why it is a reputed helicopter company that provides service to oil and gas sector.”
Compliance
THISDAY also learnt that Bristow’s flight training programmes are in compliance with the regulatory requirements of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and provide comprehensive training for these types of scenarios.
“Our flight training programs are also designed in coordination with the aircraft manufacturer and we follow their recommendations for training our crews to operate the aircraft,” said Bristow source.
Bristow’s Director of Nigerian Affairs, Tolu Olubajo, said, “In recent years Bristow has trained more than 150 national pilots and 130 national engineers, and we firmly hope to be able to maintain this momentum. Bristow Helicopters was incorporated in Nigeria in 1969 and has long demonstrated its commitment to supporting Nigeria’s energy industry and local content policies. The all Nigerian crew of this aircraft received their ab-initio training at Bristow Academy in Titusville, Florida.”
Alhamdu Haruna, Bristow Helicopters (Nigeria) Limited’s Quality and Safety Manager, said, “Bristow is cooperating fully with the Nigerian Accident Investigation Bureau (NAIB) as part of the process to establish the sequence events and probable cause leading to the precautionary landing. We’re also engaging fully with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority as they undertake their review of the S-76C series of helicopters at our operation. Like all airlines, Bristow is subject to regular and detailed regulatory oversight and welcomes the review that the NCAA is currently undertaking and will act quickly and decisively on any recommendations or directives forthcoming.”
Bristow said it remains confident in the S-76 series of aircraft, noting that the helicopter has an enviable million flight hours to date.
“Safety remains Bristow’s number one core value and our Target Zero safety culture underpins this commitment,” the company said.
It is hoped that the efforts being made by the company; the enforcement of strict compliance by NCAA and other drastic measures the regulatory authority plans to put in place in the coming months, will go a long way in preventing future accidents.
CULLED FROM THISDAY
