FROM THE BRIEFING ROOM ORGANISATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL INTERFACES

HOW FIERCE COMPETITORS JOINED FORCES TO MAKE OFFSHORE OPERATIONS SAFER

Over recent years, competition and commercialisation have become increasingly relevant to the provision of air traffic services. What effect might this have on safety? In this article, Gretchen Haskins, CEO of HeliOffshore and an aviation safety leader, explains how a fiercely competitive industry has collaborated to ensure that everyone who travels to their offshore work in a helicopter gets home safely.

56 HindSight 26 | WINTER 2017 KEY POINTS Collaboration is absolutely integral to all of our work, which is focused on four key 1. Breakthroughs in safety performance are more likely through areas: collaboration. 2. Focus on results in the frontline, and areas that will make the greatest n System Reliability & Resilience – difference to saving lives. improving the combined human/ machine interface to reduce single 3. Shared collection and analysis of day-to-day operational activities are points of failure that can cause key factors in setting and achieving measurable safety goals. accidents. 4. Translating operational performance improvements into business n Operational Effectiveness– benefits helps to achieve buy-in from senior stakeholders. developing and implementing technology, training and procedures 5. As per ICAO Annex 19, every organisation and country should have that make all stages of flight safer. a safety performance improvement strategy. There should be a n Safety Enablers – harnessing common framework for this strategy, which aids collaboration across leadership, data sharing and analysis, organisations. and safety management measures to ensure sufficient capability to enhance safety. n Survivability – ensuring that flights At face value, it might seem a tall Back in October 2014, the chief happen in suitable conditions with order to get fierce commercial rivals executives of five leading helicopter adequate plans and equipment in place to put their differences to one side operators—Babcock Mission Critical for passengers and crew to survive an to collaborate in pursuit of enhanced Services, Bristow Group, CHC Helicopter, accident. safety. Try doing that when the market Era and PHI jointly launched in which these companies compete is HeliOffshore. Based on an understanding These core sets of safety goals are going through a sustained downturn not to compete on safety, they agreed developed, championed and implemented of almost existential proportions, and to strive for shared best practices and to by HeliOffshore’s workstreams, which you might well be tempted to give up. work towards more common standards consist of seasoned frontline safety leaders But this is the story of how HeliOffshore by sharing data and pooling resources to from across our member companies came to be and how, three years on, the achieve safety goals that save lives. working in tandem with the organisation’s offshore helicopter industry is achieving small full-time staff and a select group tangible, life-saving results. Today, the group has more than 100 of specialist consultants. Together, we members globally, including helicopter develop best practices and guidelines and operators, aircraft manufacturers, then work with member operators to get equipment and services providers, these implemented at the frontline. as well as a growing number of oil and gas companies. From the outset, Essentially, HeliOffshore (http:// I was convinced of the potential that helioffshore.org/) has created a ‘safe space’ the group has to achieve a major step in which commercial rivals can put their forward in offshore helicopter safety and differences to one side in a common I’ve been able to apply safety strategies pursuit of enhanced safety. We have developed during my time in the US created a clear set of safety priorities, goals Air Force, at the UK air traffic control and implementation timelines based on company NATS and the UK Civil Aviation what makes accidents occur and what Authority. are the best measures to prevent these happening.

Gretchen Haskins is CEO of HeliOffshore Ltd., a company dedicated to global offshore helicopter safety. She has served on the board of the UK CAA as Group Director of Safety, and as Group Director of Safety at NATS. Gretchen previously worked in nuclear certification and safety of intercontinental ballistic missiles, joint airworthiness trials for military aircraft, and as an expert advisor to NATO on human performance and safety critical systems. She has flown jet and piston aircraft in the U.S. Air Force.

HindSight 26 | WINTER 2017 57 HELIOFFSHORE SAFETY ACHIEVEMENTS

n Approach Path Management guidelines

n Establishing the InfoShare portal to allow operators to share information about A whole-industry safety safety incidents management system n Collaboration on technologies to help with obstacle avoidance

Shared data and learning are critical n Best practice guidelines for health and usage monitoring systems to achieving these goals. This is why n Pilot eye-tracking research to support the development of Evidence Based Training we established our HeliOffshore Space and InfoShare portals to allow n Research resulting in new guidelines to avoid helicopters landing on the wrong decks companies to constructively work n A series of training videos to show flight crew how to make best use of automation in together through their operational the cockpit experience and knowledge. In effect, we are a virtual company with a mission n Promoted collaboration between aircraft manufacturers and operators to produce statement to enhance safety. What we’ve Flight Crew Operating Manuals to encourage standardisation of operating procedures created – and continue to progress – is n Progressive introduction of a safety intelligence data sharing programme (a first for a giant safety management system the helicopter sector) that will drive key improvements in technology and operating for the whole offshore helicopter procedures industry. In common with the air traffic management community, we’re looking to both minimise safety risk and improve performance. In our safety performance case for investing in safety both across which this approach encourages safety model (http://bit.ly/HeliOffshoreSPM) companies, as well as within them breakthroughs in performance and a we’ve articulated ‘what good looks like’ individually. commitment to shared improvement. and we’re trying to get the industry Safety issues faced by one stakeholder to achieve a safer system from that One of the key challenges for any are often best resolved through the consistent framework. This model industry is that you can’t just create a experience of another stakeholder. looks at the threats and creates a set company to ‘do safety’ for everyone. This is a very interdependent industry. of accident prevention goals based You need people who are busy doing Quite apart from operators themselves, on actions that we have to be good their frontline jobs to make safety aircraft, engine and systems designers at on a day-to-day basis to make work relevant and see that it gets can make operations safer, and training offshore helicopter operations safer in implemented. Participants need to have companies can too. Shared data a sustainable way. For example, if you sweat equity in the shared work rather gathered and analysed in a consistent want to avoid obstacles, you have to be than just writing cheques to get the way is a true foundation for this holistic good at seeing and avoiding them. If you safety monkey off their backs. approach. This ‘Safety Intelligence’ want to avoid loss of control, you have enhances our ability to focus on weak to be good at flight path management. Ultimately, success depends on having signals of potential issues, and to Once we have articulated these the people for whom safe operations is measure the potential and actual safety accident prevention goals, we are better a day job to lead the conversation across benefits of safety improvements, giving placed to examine the cost benefits the industry about how to design the people across the industry the ability to of the various solutions that different road map for better performance. This make more data-driven decisions. organisations can offer to improve safety is how we came up with the concept performance. for HeliOffshore’s workstreams and how Lately, we’ve been very excited they focus on achieving breakthroughs by opportunities to step up our Our collaboration has widened to in safety performance that reduce the collaboration with offshore helicopter include aircraft, engines and avionics causal factors of accidents. operators’ customers – the energy manufacturers, as well as specialist companies. The International service providers across the industry. For successful collaboration, you need Association of Oil and Gas Producers One of the beauties of our collaborative to have senior level buy-in and we are is aligning its strategy with our own approach is that it helps to work at every very fortunate to have this among our and has indicated a willingness to level of the supply chain, tapping a member companies. We’ve been able to contribute to the shared investment in collective investment and effort to get agree clear strategic priorities to ensure safety. We also work in close alignment the best possible safety outcomes. This is that we are focused on deliverable with the regulators and with other important because design is a key factor activities that will provide safety safety advocates, such as the Flight to help improve human performance. benefits. Consistent leadership from Safety Foundation so that we’re all the top has allowed our stakeholders heading in the same direction. The first HeliOffshore members understand that to align their safety priorities around three years of HeliOffshore’s mission investing in safety is crucial not only work that has the most potential to save have confirmed our conviction that to saving lives, but also represents a lives. This approach is delivering best only through collaboration is there sound value proposition that is repaid practices and ways of measuring safety a viable prospect of achieving our several times over by cost savings. We’ve performance in a consistent way so that industry’s ultimate goal of ensuring created a collective business case for key we can identify the degree to which that everyone who travels to their improvements, linking costs to safety further action may be required. offshore work in a helicopter gets performance benefits and making the We’ve been pleased by the extent to home safely.

58 HindSight 26 | WINTER 2017