Fundamentals of safety management: the offshore helicopter transportation system model

Abstract A precondition for a holistic, systemic and systematic management of offshore helicopter operations’ safety is an in-depth understanding of the corresponding system. This is essential because the components and the interactions between these components largely shape system and human performance, with the potential to create safety hazards and risks. However, current techniques of system component description in aviation are poorly specified, which contributes to a silo approach to hazard identification and risk analysis, poor safety management and missed safety targets. This paper addresses this shortcoming by developing a novel process to characterise the component-based system architecture of commercial air operations and implementing the process to create the Offshore Helicopter Transportation System Model. The paper discusses the theoretical justifications for generating such a system model and the shortcomings of the techniques currently recommended. In order to redress these, the process combines two task analysis techniques to derive an unbiased seminal system model, which is then compared to relevant models in the safety literature to ensure completeness. The process and resulting system model are validated by carefully selected subject matter experts during training sessions in high-fidelity flight simulators. The process can be applied to describe, by means of a system model, the activities of other industries in the aviation domain. Moreover, the model derived provides, for the first time, the necessary anchoring for future safety analyses in offshore helicopter operations.

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