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Can a helicopter operator cut accidents to zero? Bristow Group aims to find out.
The company suffered two fatal accidents in 2004 and 2005 that took six lives and wrecked two aircraft — a Bell Helicopter 412 in Nigeria and Bell 206 in the Gulf of Mexico.
That spurred senior management of the company that owns Air Logistics and Bristow Eastern Hemisphere to develop a program to change its culture. The objective is to "quit looking at this as ‘a dangerous business and stuff happens,’" Bristow President and CEO Bill Chiles told Rotor & Wing.
Dubbed Target Zero, the program aims to eliminate all accidents — air, ground, and industrial — by, among other things, engaging every employee from the top down to take a personal stake in speaking up for safe practices at the moment they see a potential problem.
"The No. 1 core value in the company is safety," Chiles said. "It’s just non-negotiable."
While the effort logically should generate financial returns by reducing lost time for personnel and aircraft and increasing productivity, that wasn’t a reason for adopting the program. "We did it because it’s intuitively the right thing to do."
The program, launched with a series of two-day workshops at Bristow sites around the world, is the latest evolution of safety advances undertaken by the offshore drilling and offshore helicopter communities.
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Target Zero is an offensive move towards a safer future for the total helicopter industry. Oil-related helicopter transport has the most educated customers, who do know what it takes to build a safe, quality organization. What it has lacked in the past is the willingness to do this, because of short-time costs, combined with the helicopter operators' tendency to compete each other down the drain. One accident to one operator is actually an accident to all us in this small industry, as this frightens our passengers.
I think attitude on all levels is the key element in to reach the goal of this initative.
We will support it and work for the realization of this goal.
Glenn Christiansen
Chairman
Ifalpa Helicopter Committee