Current Helicopter Underwater Egress Knowledge: Are We Prepared For The Next Ditching?

摘要

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the current helicopter underwater egress knowledge available from various online sources. Publicly available online sources were used as a way of ensuring that anyone with Internet access would be able use the information as opposed to a private library of technical documents or exclusive access to particular journal databases. Given that more than 30 years of underwater egress training has been completed, it was expected that the majority of the papers/reports available would be directed at training methodologies, ditching statistics, and factors affecting survival. A total of 18,862 entries were identified from six different search engines. Of the nearly 19,000 items, only 112 (1%) were considered relevant. From the directed search, it appears that a considerable amount of work has been carried out to identify the factors affecting egress as well as in the area of accident investigation. Surprisingly however, only 14% of the 112 selected documents address aspects of under- water egress training and just 2% directly address the retention of skills. A total of 10 (9%) consider ditching statistics, and 49 (44%) address the factors affecting egress. Based on the findings from this focused examination of available underwater egress literature, it is clear that further work needs to be directed toward how to best prepare the global offshore workforce for a ditching/water impact.