Transport Select Committee To Issue New Information On Monday

Specialist aviation lawyers representing injured victims and the families of those killed in helicopter crashes in the UK and abroad have revealed their hopes that a new report into offshore helicopter safety will lead to decisive action to improve standards in the industry.

The Transport Select Committee is due to publish the responses of the Government, the Civil Aviation Authority and the oil and gas industry to its report published in July examining offshore helicopter safety at 11am on October 27th.

The report recommended that a full public inquiry was held to examine the issue and while Irwin Mitchell’s specialist Aviation Law team backed such action, they also urged that the scope of any inquiry should be broadened to consider all commercial passenger-carrying helicopters operating in the UK airspace.

The specialist team represent victims and the families of those affected by a number of helicopter crashes including two off-shore incidents in October 2012 and in August last year, as well as the crash of an Augusta Westland helicopter in Vauxhall, London in January 2013.  The team is also working with colleagues at Irwin Mitchell Scotland on behalf of victims of the police helicopter crash at the Clutha Vaults bar in Glasgow in November 2013.

In light of the series of serious helicopter accidents and the fact that  the helicopter in the Glasgow crash was not required to have black box equipment fitted, the aviation team wrote to MPs calling for an inquiry and a change in law which would ensure that black-box recording equipment is fitted to all commercial passenger carrying helicopters operating in the UK airspace.