News Review: Why rescue helicopters are tied up in red tape

Action by a Sumburgh search and rescue crew has highlighted uncertainties about the Working Time Directive on hours and rest periods, which could put the UK air/sea safety service out of action says JOHN ROSS

THE call could come at any time, but luckily on Tuesday it didn't.

In the newly refurbished hangar close to Sumburgh Airport, the four-man crew of the coastguard search and rescue helicopter were on a regular 24-hour standby duty.

Some busied themselves in the kitchen, others sat on the leather settees and read newspapers or watched the wide screen plasma TV.

The difference on this occasion was that if an emergency arose which needed their response, they might not have gone.

Instinct might have taken over, but for several hours the two pilots, winchman and winch operator on Oscar Charlie, as the Sumburgh helicopter is known, were officially not working, emergency cover being provided by other military and commercial aircraft.

The distinctive red and white helicopter had been caught up in red tape.

A vital part of the search and UK rescue network and a back-up air ambulance for remoter areas was grounded by concerns over the European Working Time Directive.

Under the regulations, search and rescue (SAR) crews can work for a maximum of 2,000 hours a year. Previous practice had been to discount 50 per cent of a 24-hour shift if the crew was not called out.

However crews became concerned that non-flying time was not being discounted and they had exceeded, or were about to exceed, their limit and could face possible censure.

As well as possible fines, it was feared that in the event of an incident involving the helicopter, individual crew members might be held liable, and possibly be sued, if found to be working outside the directive limits.

It is unclear who took the decision to stand down, but it is thought it that the crew and their employers, the Canadian Helicopter Corporation (CHC), decided jointly not to operate while clarification was sought.

A temporary solution was found on Tuesday after some clarification was given but talks on a permanent formal agreement continued into yesterday.

While Sumburgh was out of operation, cover was provided by RAF Lossiemouth in Moray and a BP helicopter. Norwegian rescue services could also have responded to any emergency.

Other coastguard bases, at Stornoway and Lee-on-Solent, faced the same issue although neither of these crews was out of action. The Stornoway crew attended a rescue of climbers in Skye on Tuesday while their Sumburgh colleagues were grounded.

The situation appeared to come out of the blue and surprised the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and even the transport minister, Jim Fitzpatrick, who left a meeting in London after hearing of the Sumburgh development.

A spokesman said: "The MCA were certainly unaware of the Sumburgh crew's intentions to stop working having reached 2,000 hours until after they declared themselves off-state."

The agreement was reached after hastily arranged talks involving the MCA, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and CHC.

But it left politicians calling for clarification on how the problem arose and seeking assurances that it will not recur.

Alistair Carmichael, MP for Orkney and Shetland, said: "I have asked for an inquiry and a public explanation as to how this happened and where the responsibility lies – is it the CAA, the MCA or CHC?

"An assurance that this cannot happen again is only meaningful if we know how it happened in the first place."

CHC won a £100 million-plus contract in 2005 to supply helicopters for the MCA until 2012.

It is then planned to bring all SAR helicopters for the UK under one contract to last 20 to 30 years, through the Private Finance Initiative.

Mr Carmichael added: "What happened this week is bad, but come 2012 it could be disastrous. The cover that was provided for Oscar Charlie for six hours came from RAF Lossiemouth. Come 2012 there will be one SAR contract for the whole of the UK and we won't have that back-up."

Tavish Scott, the Shetland MSP, has raised the problem with Nicola Sturgeon, the health secretary, because of the helicopter's role as a back-up to air ambulances.

He said: "It is clearly important that agreement is quickly fully formalised so that the helicopters are not grounded again.

"This is not just an issue of safety at sea, vital though that is. Coastguard helicopters also provide a back-up to the Scottish Ambulance Service aircraft, having already undertaken several air ambulance flights in the Northern Isles this year.

"I would therefore hope that the Scottish Government will make representations to the MCA to seek assurances that they will get this issue fully and finally resolved so that there is no risk of the coastguard helicopters being grounded by a similar problem when one of them is asked to respond to an emergency request for help from the Scottish Ambulance Service."

The European Working Time Directive, which came into effect in 1998, was designed to protect the health and safety of workers.

Regulations introduced a statutory limit on average weekly hours of work; a legal entitlement to paid leave; and new laws on rest breaks, night work and shift patterns.

They specify a maximum of 48 hours in the working week, averaging out over 17 weeks.

All industries are covered but issues have been highlighted among junior doctors and bus drivers.

In May, an Edinburgh coach hire firm whose drivers were at risk of falling asleep at the wheel was closed for falsifying records of drivers' hours and breaching the directive.

Last year it was claimed that patients could die as a result of European rules governing work breaks for ambulance crews. A number of cases have emerged where ambulances have not been sent out as staff were on a break.

As part of the government's Agenda for Change reforms, which conform to the directive, ambulance crews must take 45 minutes off, unpaid, during each 12-hour shift. Alternatively, they can accept a £250 annual payment to opt out and remain on call at all times.

In the case of the helicopter crews, the confusion over discounted hours has brought an issue to a head.

But according to one source, the coastguard crews would not have been penalised for breaking the time limits.

He said: "While the bigger issue of a formal change to the rules is worked through, it would not be in the public interest to pursue SAR operators who exceeded the annual working time limit just because of the amount of standby time."

He said another option would be to recruit extra crews though it would take between 12 and 18 months to find and train new staff.

A CHC spokesman said: "There have been ongoing discussions between staff and management regarding the method of counting standby duty for crews in accordance with both the flight time limitations scheme, as approved by the CAA, and the requirements of the Working Time Directive.

"To date, CHC has been conducting UK search and rescue operations in accordance with both the flight time legal limits and the directive. On this basis, 50 per cent of standby duty time for crews is discounted from the cumulative 2,000 annual duty hour limit."

The MCA spokesman added: "We are moving quickly to remedy the longer term issue, working closely with DfT (Department of Transport] Aviation to secure an amendment to the relevant rules that would formalise the 50 per cent rule."

EXPERT INSIGHT

Problem has taken far too long to solve

Jim Ferguson
Aviation expert

AS SOMEONE with 40 years' operational and support experience of UK air and sea search and rescue, I am both disappointed and surprised that it has taken so long to resolve the concerns which seem to have caused this week's difficulties.

The problem may have stemmed from the obtuse and obscure wording of elements of the EU document concerned, but this does not explain why no action seems to have been taken before push came to shove.

Alistair Carmichael MP shares everyone's concerns and I hope that when he receives an explanation from the MCA or Department for Transport, he ensures that it receives the widest publicity.

Despite an apparent interim dispensation, negotiations to formalise an agreement continue, and I am worried that unless they are resolved, this week's difficulties could still cause problems when all UK search and rescue (SAR) helicopters are privatised in 2012.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has two SAR helicopters in Scotland, in Sumburgh and Stornoway. Sumburgh also has a Bond Offshore Super Puma which is a BP rescue facility. As this asset is reportedly available to the coastguard, the Sumburgh problem might not have been so serious had an incident occurred around Shetland. But in the Western Isles the nearest military response is at least 90 minutes from Prestwick or Lossiemouth.

INSIDER'S VIEW

Pilots on stand-by soon rack up hours

Simon Roberts
Scheduling officer, British Airline Pilots' Assn

THE Search and Rescue crews operate a 24-hour stand-by block. The problem with this is how many duty hours they do per year. The working time regulations, which came in in 2004, says you can do only 2,000 duty hours per 12 months. The problem with doing a 24-hour-stand by is that 2,000 hours very quickly ebbs away.

The Civil Aviation Authority is aware there is this anomaly for search and rescue crews and stand-by cover. The regulations say that while on stand-by, if the individual is at a place of rest provided by the company and does not get called out between 2200 hours and 0800 hours, they can halve the duty hours between those times. In other words ten hours would become five. This comes off the 24 hour block to become 19.

The company and the pilots do not have an issue. We were seeking clarification from the CAA whether that was the way we should be doing it. Previously crews had been calculating duty at 19 hours, as that was the presumption. However, if that was wrong, some of these guys have bust the 2,000 hours mark already.

The concern from the pilots was that if they did breach the limit and they are the licence holders, would they get sued?

Every party was pushing for an answer and we were pleased to get it so the service could continue. With people on 24 hour stand-by it does not take long for these hours to accrue so a lot of the search and rescue guys would have been in a similar situation very shortly.

IN QUOTES

"CHC has recently been in discussions with regulatory agencies regarding the application of the Working Time Directive to the Search and Rescue operation in the UK. The operation at Sumburgh was suspended for a short period today pending clarification of specific legislative points."

– CHC spokesman, Tuesday.

"Some detail in the Working Time Directive for these flight crew is unclear regarding duty time and actual flying time. The company and the pilots are erring on the side of caution."

– Jim McAuslan, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots' Association.

"The rescue helicopter saves lives, so a way around rules that are not meant to stop emergency services doing their job must be found."

– Tavish Scott, Shetland MSP.

"It is unacceptable that seafarers in the North and West of Scotland should be left without adequate cover at this time of year.

"Someone has clearly taken their eye off the ball."

– Alistair Carmichael, Orkney and Shetland MP

"The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is working closely with the contractor, the Canadian Helicopter Corporation, and the Civil Aviation Authority to resolve crews' concerns to do with the working time directive and restore cover."

– MCA spokesman.

"CHC management and pilots must have seen the clock ticking towards 2,000 hours.

"Why not get some sort of solution in place that didn't involve grounding a Search and Rescue machine for hours."

– Comment on the Professional Pilots Rumour Page, an internet discussion forum.

"This is about whether time on duty but not in the air actually counts towards the number of working hours."

– CAA spokesman.

KEY WORDS

Maritime and Coastguard Agency

Has 19 maritime rescue co-ordination centres around the UK coast. In 2005, it signed a deal worth more than £100 million with Canadian company CHC to supply replacements for ageing helicopters at Stornoway, Sumburgh, Lee-on-Solent in Hampshire, and Portland in Dorset.

CHC

The Canadian Helicopter Corporation, which has its European base in Aberdeen, gets nearly 70 per cent of its revenue from providing helicopter support to the oil and gas industry. It is also a leader in search and rescue and helicopter training.

Civil Aviation Authority

The CAA is the aviation regulator and provider of air traffic services. Its activities include airspace policy, safety, and consumer protection.