Oil and Gas Industry Operations 04: Bird Coming In

Image Commentary

In the 1970's and '80's thousands of young Norwegian and British men and women became familiar with an entirely new industry unlike anything their forbears could have imagined. The process of donning bright orange survival suits and climbing aboard the large red and white Sikorski helicopters for their "commute" to work became as familiar as the London Underground. Weekly emergency fire and evacuation drills that sometimes meant being strapped into fibreglass floating cylinders and being dropped seventy feet into the frigid North Sea, became tedious routine. But every once in a while, thankfully rarely, something really would go wrong, and incredibly, rigs sank, helicopters went down, and friends would be lost. With that in the back of everyone's mind, crew change day and the shout "Helicopter coming in!" was always a welcome event!