The safety measures for domestic helicopters are not good enough , pilot leader Jo Bjorn Skatval thinks. CAA, on the other hand, beleieves that the safety measures of these helicopters are and have been good.
– There has not been any fatalities in this type of air operations over the past two years. But if you think about all the things that have not been done to improve safety of the pilots, you can not safely say that the security measures are good, Skatval says to the newspaper Bergens Tidende.
The selfsame newspaper wrote last week that the CAA is concerned about safety in Norway and that 25 of 41 measures recommended in a government commissioned study was not yet completed by the end of 2015. This is in addition to recommendations from the Accident Investigation Board of aviation.
– Until the recommendations of the safety study and recommendations from the AIBN are followed up, we can not say that things are sufficiently safe , Skatval says.
In the last 16 years helicopters flying domestically, have been involved in fatal accidents in both 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014.
Aviation Director Stein Nodeland wrote in an article in Bergens Tidende last week that the number of inspections for a period of time has been less than planned, but that there at no time have been any danger to the flight safety.
– We see that we have in some areas could have contributed to a more systematic organization of the follow-up work.
But we have still followed through on the main the recommendations, and this has contributed to the safety of inland helicopters being good, Department Director Jan Petter Steinland writes in an email to the newspaper.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
