Application of Resilience Engineering on Safety in Offshore Helicopter Transportation

This paper is the result of a cognitive analysis performed on a helicopter system that provides transportation for a large petrochemical company in Brazil. This complex system was designed to be the link between the onshore base and the petroleum drillers located on offshore platforms. By analyzing the factors within the complex socio-technical system and focusing on the concepts of resilience engineering, various goal conflicts that stress the system were identified. Many of these system stressors resulted from various human, machine, organizational, and environmental factors that involve the helicopter companies´ executives, pilots, and mechanics. While some codes and regulations define boundaries for the activities performed at the base, these codes and regulations do not cover all the issues. Pilots, mechanics, and managers create workarounds that may have harmful side effects on the entire system. The goal of this system analysis is to identify which points are critical and how they may be modified to provide a more resilient system