Proposing safety performance indicators for helicopter offshore on the Norwegian Continental Shelf

Over last 10-years period there has been just one helicopter accident (with no fatalities) in the Norwegian sector of helicopter offshore operations. In this case, safety monitoring cannot be based on the absence of accidents. The main objective of this paper is to suggest a combination of leading and lagging indicators to monitor safety performance for helicopter offshore operations. An approach is described to identify indicators using different perspectives: a Risk Influence Model, the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM), and lessons learned from previous studies. The approach uses accident and incident data, as well as normal operations (when nothing goes wrong). The suggested indicators were evaluated through observations and interviews/workshop with helicopter operators, air traffic controllers, helicopter deck operators and regulators. The paper discusses the approach and proposes a set of domain specific safety performance indicators. The work was carried out under the Norwegian Helicopter Safety Study 3 (HSS-3).