Irish Coast Guard search and rescue helicopter crew are upset over CHC Ireland’s failure to fully implement a key recommendation arising from the Rescue 116 helicopter crash in north Mayo.
As The Sunday Independent reports, unions are currently negotiating with the company on the issue.
Air crew maintain they were not consulted on the details of a fatigue risk management system introduced on September 1st by CHC Ireland.
The newspaper reports that union representatives have been told by members that the system is “worse in some respects” for pilots than before the March 2017 helicopter crash, in which four air crew - captains Dara Fitzpatrick and Mark Duffy and winch team Ciaran Smith and Paul Ormsby – died.
One of 12 contributory factors identified in the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) investigation into the Rescue 116 crash was the absence of a fatigue risk management system as required by the EU Aviation Safety Agency.
"A fatigue risk management system is a data-driven means of continuously monitoring and managing fatigue-related safety risks"
The AAIU report noted that the flight crew members’ “likely hours of wakefulness at the time of the accident were correlated with increased error rates and judgement lapses”.
The AAIU recommended that CHCI “should ensure that it has in place a fatigue risk management system based on scientific principles, which takes advantage of modern techniques such as bio-mathematical analysis of roster patterns, is known to all its crew members, and that it encourages the reporting of fatigue related issues”.
CHC Ireland announced last month that it had received Irish Aviation Authority approval for a fatigue risk system, which it was initiating on a trial basis.
The company said that since 2019 it has “gathered data through surveys, workshops and scientific-grade watches of crews to assess the impact of fatigue on safe operations”.
However, it is understood the air crew are angry that the company has not incorporated bio-mathematical modelling into the system, and that approval was given by the IAA without any consultation with crew.
Biomathematical models are statistical models, which combine information on working hours with how biology influences alertness and sleepiness to predict past, present or future fatigue or alertness levels.
Read The Sunday Independent here