Nighttime approaches to offshore installations in Brazil: Safety shortcomings experienced by helicopter pilots

Accident rates for night sorties by helicopters traveling to offshore oil and gas platforms are at least five times higher than those during the daytime. Because pilots need to transition from automated flight to a manually flown night visual segment during arrival, the approach and landing phases cause great concern. Despite this, in Brazil, regulatory changes have been sought to allow for the execution of offshore night flights because of the rapid expansion of the petroleum industry. This study explores the factors that affect safety during night visual segments in Brazil using 28 semi-structured interviews with offshore helicopter pilots, followed by a template analysis of the narratives. The relationships among the factors suggest that flawed safety oversights, caused by a combination of lack of infrastructure for night flights offshore and declining training, currently favor spatial disorientation on the approach and near misses when close to the destination. Safety initiatives can be derived on the basis of these results.

► Offshore nighttime helicopter operations worldwide face high accident rates.
► The approach-and-landing phases causes particular concern.
► In Brazil, night flying is assessed to cope with increasing production demands.
► Safety shortcomings in offshore nighttime approaches in Brazil are investigated.
► Identified shortcomings should guide fundamental improvement needs.