HELICOPTER SAFETY ADVISORY
CONFERENCE
May 19, 2005
Hotel Acadiana – Best
Western
Lafayette, Louisiana
MINUTES
Mark Fontenot, Co-Chairman
· Casey Lowery, Chairman, was absent because of company business in Jakarta and Indonesia.
· Introduced new Government Liaison, Terry Umfleet, who is replacing Rick Oeder, retired. Terry was unable to attend the meeting.
· Presented service Plaques of Appreciation to:
Ø Gary Tucker – Accepting for Gary was Carl Brown, Air Logistics
Ø Ted Windslow – Accepting for Ted was Virgil Russell, BP
Ø Rick Oeder
Ø Gary
Guerrero - Accepting for Gary was Terry
Kersher, Chevron Chief Pilot
Jim Hicks
· Air Defense Center undergoing modernization and transformation to Air Operations Center.
· Southeast Air Defense Section will close on April 30, 2006 and reformed as one of two Air Operations Centers for the U.S.
· Manned Shuttle launch scheduled for July 16, 2005.
Bob Williams – Chairman HSAC Risk Reduction Work Group
·
Presented “HSAC Risk Reduction Work Group Update and 2004 Safety
Statistics.” See Attachment 1. For PowerPoint copy, email robert.g.williams@exxonmobil.com.
·
Introduced Jerry Dennis, Executive Director of the Medallion
Foundation. Excellent presentation.
For complete information on the Foundation, visit www.medallionfoundation.com.
Frank Colby – Safety Pilot, Omega Protein
·
The fishing season has begun and will continue until November
1, 2005.
·
Hours of flight operations are from sunrise to sunset.
·
Fixed wing aircraft operating at altitudes from 500’ to 3000’
and up to 10-miles offshore.
·
Mark Fontenot reminded the helicopter operators to review this
activity with new pilots.
Joe Gross – Treasurer, HSAC
·
Related incident that occurred recently where MMS helicopter
was landing unannounced on an offshore platform. The rig was not normally service by helicopter
and there was grinding and sanding work being completed on the helideck.
Personnel and equipment were hastily moved from the helideck for the
aircraft to land, putting them at potential risk.
There was no way the pilot could determine the safe state of the deck
without communicating with the platform. Additional
precautions in place for all BHPB helicopter procedures were not made ready
for the landing. These include the use
of dressing out fire crew and positioning a fire extinguisher cart. It was petitioned that a call by the aircraft
10-minutes prior to landing would allow for a “green deck.” BHPB has no objections to the conduct of surprise,
unannounced visits. However, the element
of surprise is eliminated once the aircraft arrives at the rig and safety of
all is jeopardizes when no communication is made with the platform to determine
if is safe to land.
·
Bill Martin, MMS, stated that a procedure would be published
shortly where the pilot would contact the platform or drilling rig 20-minutes
prior to arrival with a second call 5-minutes prior to landing.
Mark Fontenot
·
HSAC Frequency Cards: Any changes required, please e-mail the information to rwall@air-log.com. Please help keep the information accurate and
updated.
·
“Offshore Hurricane Readiness and Recovery Conference” will be
held in Houston, TX on July 26 and 27, 2005. Attachment
2: For information and registration visit www.api.org/petroteam.
Joe Gross – Treasurer’s Report
·
List of donations will be presented at September meeting in Houston.
·
HSAC is fiscally sound.
·
Please include Joe’s name when sending any contributions in to
the BHP Billiton address now listed for HSAC.
Tom Workman – HSAC/FAA Interface
·
Terry Gimbill, FAA Deridder Flight Service, attended the meeting,
but had to depart early.
·
Service at Deridder Flight Service will be contracted to Lockheed.
·
Deridder Flight Service Station will be closed permanently in
mid-2006.
·
FSS will be consolidation into three (3) stations for entire
U.S.
Terry Kaufman – Standardization and Safety
· Jerry Dennis, Medallion Foundation, and Jack Hutwit, Keystone and founder of AMSAS, were recognized for their accomplishments and HSAC appreciated their efforts to attend the HSAC meeting in Lafayette, LA.
· “Hurricane Preparedness” – see Attachment 3. For PowerPoint copy, email tkaufman@phihelico.com
Philip Robins – HYDRO – Senior Vice President Business Development
·
Offshore Helidecks – Presentation on aluminum helidecks
and advantages of aluminum compared to steel helidecks.
·
See Attachment
4. For PowerPoint copy of the presentation, send
request to philip.robins@hydro.com.
·
The website is www.hma.hydro.com.
· Comment: Helidecks in Norway are constructed of aluminum.
· Formally present HSAC proposal on U.S. New Build Helideck Size for Regular Membership vote. (See Attachment 5)
· Presentation on “Helideck Design” (Attachment 6) Request PowerPoint e-copy to robert.g.williams@exxonmobil.com
·
Requested the opportunity to address the Membership on the HSAC
policy statement for “U.S. New Build Helideck Size.”
·
MMS getting “geared-up” to review ICAO Annex 14.
Tom Tierney - Manager Business Development
·
Regrets to Mr. Tierney and the Immersive Technologies Enterprise
(LITE) for not having adequate time on the agenda for the presentation.
LITE is invited to attend the next HSAC meeting.
·
For information on LITE, visit www.thelite.org or email tomt@lafayette.org. See Attachment
7.
Mark Fontenot
·
Ballots distributed for voting on HSAC proposal, “U.S. New Build
Helideck Size.”
·
Nominations for Chairman and Treasurer are being accepted.
Voting for Chairman and Treasurer will be held at the next HSAC Meeting
in September 2005.
·
2005 Offshore Crane Operations and Safety Conference will be
held on June 15 and 16, 2005 at the Wyndham Greenspoint Hotel in Houston, TX.
For information and registration visit www.api.org/petroteam. See Attachment
8.
Next HSAC Meeting
will be in Houston, TX on September 14 and 15, 2005.