UK CAA remains in prehistoric times with their attitude towards helicopter safety

Remember the HARP Report from 1987? Well, they got no further..... UK CAA Presses Ahead on North Sea Safety Effort

The UK CAA is continuing its campaign to address the root causes of the accidents that have occurred during North Sea operations over the last two decades. Since it cites pilot error as the biggest issue in operational accidents, the CAA sees flight data monitoring (FDM) as the primary tool. Rotor and transmission failures account for 86 percent of accidents rooted in technical causes. The causes of these malfunctions remain under investigation, but the CAA nonetheless has leads for mitigation. For example, transmission Hums improvements are being implemented on the AgustaWestland AW139, Sikorsky S-92 and Airbus Helicopters EC225. The CAA and AgustaWestland are looking at extending Hums to rotors. For avoidance of lightning strikes (71 percent of external causes), the UK Meteorology Office is developing a lightning-strike forecast. However, accident prevention is not enough, said one researcher, noting, “It is…unrealistic to expect to be able to prevent all offshore helicopter accidents.” Therefore, a significant part of the CAA’s work concentrates on passenger survivability. To this end, the agency now prohibits flights over excessively rough seas and requires arming emergency flotation systems for all overwater departures and arrivals. It also implemented an escape window size requirement of 22 inches.