Offshore staff
HOUSTON – Hess has contracted aviation group Bristow U.S. to provide medevac and search and rescue (SAR) services in the Gulf of Mexico.
This isBristow’s second contract to provide full SAR services in the region.
Bristow Americas regional director Samantha Willenbacher said: “We are drawing on our years of experience of operating SAR around the world, including for all of the UK on behalf of the HM Coastguard, and partnering with Acadian Air Med to deliver the highest standard of rescue service and medical care in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Hess joins Shell Offshore as the second member of the new SAR consortium formed by Bristow, which guarantees SAR and medevac response to members 24 hr/day, seven days a week, covering their entire GoM operations.
Bristow will operate the new service from its SAR facility at the South Lafourche Airport in Galliano, dedicating a Sikorsky S-92 and a Leonardo AW139 aircraft to the contract. The S-92 is said to be the only all-weather heavy SAR aircraft operating in the GoM, with the speed and extended operational range to reach ultra-deepwater rigs and installations, and the capacity to respond quickly to multiple-casualty situations.
“With our rescue fleet, all parts of the Gulf of Mexico are within reach of this lifesaving service,” Willenbacher claimed.
The S-92’s features include forward-looking infrared, auto hover, twin-hoist, mission management and increased on-board medical capabilities.
The AW139 helicopter features a 700-Mhz radio for communication with multi-agency responders, mission management capabilities, an external rescue hoist system, and critical care medical equipment.
Onboard the aircraft are two pilots, a rescue hoist operator, a certified rescue swimmer, and a critical care transport-flight paramedic, supported by onsite contingency operations comprising air-droppable survival kits, linked raft systems, marine vessel salvage pumps, and point of injury industrial confined space and technical rescue.
05/04/2017
