Sometimes you just can't win.....
Posted: Sat Mar 16, 2019 4:13 pm
On the ET accident thread Alison said about Sully that you can't be a hero if by your actions you are saving your own life - and I agree with that although he did an impressive job in difficult conditions. On a not too dissimilar vein that reminded me when I got into trouble for saying to pax that I took all decisions to ensure my own safety......
Many years ago when we were based on a North Sea offshore flotel (floating hotel) and shuttling workers to and from rigs, we had a few ‘incidents’ which upset the pax. These were almost all poor night deck landings on pitching and rolling decks by new and very inexperienced P2’s flying with Line Training Captains. It didn’t help that one day on the first of an evening’s shuttles – maybe 25+ short sectors – some wag had stuck a red car L plate on the back of the P2’s seat and for the whole evening on each sector it was visible to all 16 pax in the back.
Shortly after the L plate evening the client’s safety rep asked the Company for someone to speak at one of the offshore safety meetings and as the senior pilot on board I was lumbered with it. I listened to all the complaints and amongst other things I tried to reassure them by saying that in effect I was the most important person on the helicopter as all the decisions I took during a flight were to ensure I got home safely at the end of my two weeks offshore and by looking after myself I was looking after their best interests also.
For some reason that went down like a lead balloon and I ended up being reported to my Company with the weird complaint that I wasn’t putting my passengers as No.1 in my considerations. The Company kind of backed me up but despite your best efforts sometimes you just can’t win.
Many years ago when we were based on a North Sea offshore flotel (floating hotel) and shuttling workers to and from rigs, we had a few ‘incidents’ which upset the pax. These were almost all poor night deck landings on pitching and rolling decks by new and very inexperienced P2’s flying with Line Training Captains. It didn’t help that one day on the first of an evening’s shuttles – maybe 25+ short sectors – some wag had stuck a red car L plate on the back of the P2’s seat and for the whole evening on each sector it was visible to all 16 pax in the back.
Shortly after the L plate evening the client’s safety rep asked the Company for someone to speak at one of the offshore safety meetings and as the senior pilot on board I was lumbered with it. I listened to all the complaints and amongst other things I tried to reassure them by saying that in effect I was the most important person on the helicopter as all the decisions I took during a flight were to ensure I got home safely at the end of my two weeks offshore and by looking after myself I was looking after their best interests also.
For some reason that went down like a lead balloon and I ended up being reported to my Company with the weird complaint that I wasn’t putting my passengers as No.1 in my considerations. The Company kind of backed me up but despite your best efforts sometimes you just can’t win.