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New helicopter for OPITO and NOGEPA offshore training

07 February 2014

People who frequently work offshore, are aware of the fact that they could find themselves in an emergency situation at any time, situations in which they would have to rely on themselves for the most part. A good training must therefore make sure that you will be able to rescue yourself in these situations without facing too many problems. People who use this as a reason to follow OPITO trainings like BOSIET and FOET or the NOGEPA Offshore Safety Introduction and Emergency Response Training (0.5A) and repetition (0.5 B) get a brand new simulator at their disposal. The new helicopter, specially designed for training will not only make the training much more interesting, but especially more realistic.

Essential practical knowledge

Knowing how to act in theory in case of an emergency situation doesn’t automatically mean that you can adequately react to these problems in practice too. For this reason, we choose to use the infrastructure of a real helicopter. By doing so, the course participant can experience the situation as if they were real. It is also easier for the instructors to estimate how well the course participants anticipate in the occurrence of a bad situation. Such a situation is not only caused by the helicopter of course, but also by the environment where it takes place. Therefore, the helicopter is continuously placed in a specifically designed swimming pool, which contributes to the realistic effect of the training.

Who are qualified for such trainings?

The courses where helicopters are used for practice are necessary for people who regularly work offshore. Those people are often transported by means of a helicopter, which in fact makes such training essential for emergency situations. Are you for example employed on an offshore drill platform or on a massive container ship? In either case, you should definitely consider taking on one of many interesting courses where a helicopter is used for practice.

Helicopter offshore

Which trainings are provided?

The helicopter is used in various training in which it’s important that the person in question can efficiently react on unexpected events in his direct environment. Training like these are called HUET, which stands for Helicopter Underwater Escape Training. The training can be divided into a basic education, de BOSIET, and repetition training, the FOET. NOGEPA can respectively be divided into Safety Introduction and Emergency Response Training (0.5A) and the repetition training (0.5B). During these courses we practice for example on escaping a helicopter with and without windows. We also practice situations where the participant has got a lifejacket and in situations where he hasn’t got one. Escaping a capsized helicopter is a pretty intensive and horrible experience, but in this way, you are taught how to keep your chances of survival optimal. Finally, the helicopter is also used for training to simulate a partially sunken helicopter. The HUET therefore, is really essential for people who are regularly transported by means of a helicopter above see or open water.

The benefit of each training

We can derive from this article that using a helicopter in training significantly raises the training to a higher level. When you would only rely on your theoretical knowledge, chances are that you will panic when life-threatening situations occur. If you are in possession of a certain amount of practical experience, you can anticipate to the situation in an efficient way, and make sure that you don’t just increase the chances of survival for yourself, but possibly for other people inside the helicopter as well.

BOCAS

Because of the new cooperation, FMTC can use all the facilities of BOCAS the training centre for firefighters Amsterdam-Amstelland Schiphol. This goes both ways of course. Firefighters are also able to use the swimming pool for helicopter training. Firefighters will not be training on how to escape a helicopter, but train on how to rescue people inside a vehicle that is underwater. Some minor adaptions make the simulator highly effective for such training.
Thus, our new helicopter for training can be used for various purposes. The FOET and BOSIET training significantly increase your chances of survival in case a helicopter accidently goes underwater. Moreover, we have our fair share in the public safety, since we provide the firefighters with the helicopter for training as a simulation of a vehicle in the water.

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